re: Italy trip average costs

I was looking the other day for a friend, for two people I spent $9.400 last year on airfare (business class), hotel (nicer end hotels in good locations), train, private car transport, and prearranged tours/trips that I made. 4 cities, 12 days. Florence, Sienna, Positano, Rome

Id be guessing if I told you how much I spent on food and drink. Ate everything from 3 star michelin to street food, sent back cases of wine etc

We did nine nights via AirBnB in Rome, Florence, and Venice.

These were entire studio apartments that slept two. They were right at $100 a night, all three were great locations.

Trains are very inexpensive. We took the high speed trains from Rome to Florence and Florence to Venice. It was about $35 a person for business class for each ride.

Meals are like what people have already said, you get what you pay for. Stay away from the famous Piazzas and the prices drop a ton. We learned this the hard way. We stopped at a famous restaurant about midnight in Piazza Navona. A beer, Coke, and a gelato was €40

Breakfast was simply something from the grocery store because Italy doesn't really do breakfast (except maybe at the hotels).

Lunch was usually played by ear, simply hitting a pizza counter or a panini/calzone.

We decided to do one nice dinner in each city, and any Michelin rated restaurant will easily run you $75-$100 for two people if you don't drink. It can very easily get MUCH higher than that with drinks and what you get.

A great piece of advice if you are going to Venice, get the multi-day waterbus pass. Waterbuses start at €7.50 each, and are one way. We went to Murano and Burano for the day, and the waterbus rides are €60 for 2 people if you don't have the pass.

In Rome, the Hop On/Hop Off buses are great (if you have a stop near where you are staying). Buy the multi-day passes and save a ton of walking.

In Florence, I would rent bikes. It is not a big city and very easy to get around via a bike. They have bike shops or they have bikes parked all over the city, you jus need the app to rent them.

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4 cities, 12 days. Florence, Sienna, Positano, Rome

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Sorry to hijack.

GynoSandberg,

We're thinking of a similar trip for our honeymoon (most likely late September 2019). I am thinking fly into Florence, get to Siena. 2 nights in Siena, 2 nights in Tuscan countryside, 2 nights Florence, high speed train down Naples, get to Amalafi Coast (looking at Praiano), 5 nights on Amlafi Coast, get back to either Florence or Rome for final night, and fly out.

Any recommendations on itinerary/time in each place based on your experience? We are in our early 30s and like to eat good food (doesn't necessarily have to be expensive), drink, walk around and see cool things. We aren't anti-museum, but I don't think this would be a "museum trip" necessarily.

I realize Tuscany to Amalfi isn't the most efficient trip, but it seems doable with the high speed train.

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hungryone

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Thanks for the tips. It would be 5 nights but only 4 full days on the Amalfi Coast, as the bookends would be travel days.

Still too much time?

We're pretty active travelers, but, as this is our honey moon, I want to have a lot of relaxing time as well.

We definitely want to hike the Path of the Gods, probably take a boat excursion one day (Capri or elsewhere), and then have 2 days to lounge around/get over to another town on the coast (Positano, Amalfi, Ravello).

The Wiz is a baller! I enjoyed reading your post. THAT is how you vacation in Italy! Nice.

Planning this now for next summer. Thinking $7,500 for 11 nights. Tons of points for airfare. Hotel and VRBO coming in way less than I was expecting.

Rome (1) --> Florence (3) ---> Undecided Tuscany town (2) ---->. Praiano ---> (4) --> Naples (1)

Have VRBOs booked in Florence and Praiano. Splurge on hotel & B&Bs in Rome, Naples and Tuscany.

Estimated total $2500 on rooms.

We are planning to splurge on wine, meals, day trips, personal drivers, etc. Budget is $5k for all this, but I'm not going to calculating it daily or managing to it.

My wife and I did a 13 day trip in 2016 and I figure we spent around $8,000 total.

Airfare was around $1,100 per person round trip (New Orleans to Milan and then Rome to New Orleans).

Our itinerary was: 3 days in Milan with a day trip to Lake Como, 2 days in Venice, 4 days in Florence with a day trip to Cinque Terre, 4 days in Rome. Nightly price of our hotels was probably $150 to $170ish as best I can remember.