Booking an Italy Vacation Rental Online

If you’ve ever tried to find a vacation rental in Italy just by typing “vacation rental in Italy” in a search engine, you’ll know what I mean when I say there’s almost too much choice. There are pages and pages of results for different companies that offer Italy vacation rentals - or at least they say they do. But how many of them actually have unique listings? And which ones offer rental properties in different price ranges? Do some feature only the ultra-expensive luxury villas while others also have cheaper apartment rentals? In short, how do you sort through the long list of results to find the sites that you should really be looking at?

Well, while there’s no really quick and easy way to sort through every search result, there are a few websites that do rise above the fray in terms of the Italy vacation rentals they offer. I’ve collected a few of the better vacation rental websites here so that you can check them out for yourself and see which ones you like best. This way, the next time you’re hunting for a vacation rental in Italy you don’t have to search high and low - you can go directly to the site you already know you like.

Some of these websites will have more properties available than others, but the ones I’ve included here are all noteworthy for one reason or another. I’ve tried to list my reasons for including them so you can know a little bit about the site before you click through, but you may want to check them all out anyway just to see if you agree with my assessment!

• VRBO - This stands for “Vacation Rental By Owner,” and what I like about this site is that there is a huge variety of locations and types of vacation property to choose from. Be aware that there isn’t really a middleman managing the rental of the property, it’s primarily the owners who are listing these private homes and you’re renting directly from them. Vrbo, which is owned by Expedia, also absorbed its sister site HomeAway, so you can filter by property type, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, or the kind of location (beach, mountain, city) as well as by town.
• Parker Villas - I’ve drooled over countless catalogs from The Parker Company, and maybe you have, too. Their vacation rentals are mostly on the luxury end of things, but if you can split the cost of a villa between several families or something you could make it worth your while. Some of these villas look downright dreamy.

Whichever site you use, look for the listing’s CIN (Codice Identificativo Nazionale). Since January 2025 every legal holiday rental in Italy has to have this national ID code and show it in its online listings, so a listing without one is a red flag. In Florence, new short-term rentals have been banned in the historic center since May 2025, so the apartments you’ll find there are ones that were already licensed.

Have fun searching for the perfect Italy vacation rental!