Italy Q&A: Daily Budget for Italy

This question came in by email from Jen, and it's one we hear constantly, so here's the answer for 2026:

We are planning our first Italy vacation for about 10 days. We are coming there with another couple and have our tickets and hotels all paid for. We are beginning in Rome for 3 days, then Tuscany, Milan, Florence and Venice.

Just curious, we are getting conflicting amounts from people that we have met that have been there in the past… how much should we plan on spending each day or for the entire trip?

After day 3, we are renting a car so; that will save on the Eurail Pass.

Great question, Jen. You'll get conflicting answers because people travel so differently, and because anyone who went more than a few years ago is quoting prices that no longer exist. Museum tickets in particular have roughly doubled over the last decade.

First, a word about the route. If that's the order you're driving it in, rethink it. Tuscany, then up to Milan, then back down to Florence (which is in Tuscany), then back up to Venice means hours of extra driving. Rome, then Tuscany and Florence, then Venice, with Milan last or dropped entirely, flows much better. And honestly, you don't want a car in any of the cities on your list. More on that below.

The short answer

With flights and hotels already paid, plan on roughly €80 to €120 per person per day in 2026 for food, sights and getting around the cities, if you eat well but not extravagantly and see one or two paid sights a day. Careful travelers who picnic at lunch and pick their museums can do it on €50 to €70. If you like long dinners with a good bottle of wine, €150 and up is easy to reach. Then add the car on top.

Where the money goes

Sights. The big names cost about €18 to €30 per person in 2026: the Colosseum is about €18, the Uffizi about €25 (€29 booked ahead), the Vatican Museums about €25 with the booking fee. Smaller museums and churches cost less, and many churches are free. Most of the famous places sell timed tickets that you should book before you go. Audio guides and guided tours are extra.

Food. This is where your budget really swings. Serious foodies can spend as much on eating as on the hotel. Budget travelers who build picnics from the markets eat extraordinarily well for very little. Most people land in the middle: coffee and a cornetto at the bar, a trattoria lunch, a proper dinner. Local price data for 2026 puts a meal in an inexpensive restaurant at about €15 in Rome and nearer €20 to €25 in Florence, and prices climb near the big sights and in Venice. If breakfast comes with your hotel, eat it. It's not as much fun as standing at the corner bar with a caffè, but you've already paid for it.

The hotel extras. Even with rooms prepaid, you'll almost certainly owe the city tourist tax at check-out. It's charged per person per night, depends on the hotel's star rating, and is rarely included in the booking price. For two couples over ten nights it can add up to a couple of hundred euros, so don't be surprised by it.

Small stuff. Tipping isn't expected in Italy; rounding up or leaving a euro or two is normal. Some restaurants add a cover charge (coperto) per person, shown on the menu, though it's banned in Rome and the rest of Lazio. Every shop and restaurant has to accept cards, so you won't need to carry much cash.

The car

Renting a car for Tuscany makes sense; renting one for the whole trip mostly doesn't. Budget for the rental itself plus fuel, motorway tolls and parking, which isn't cheap in or near any city. The big trap is the ZTL, the limited traffic zone that covers the historic center of Florence, Siena and most Italian towns. Cameras photograph every car that enters without a permit, and each fine costs roughly €83 to €332, plus a fee from the rental company for passing on your details. Several cameras on one wrong turn means several fines, which arrive months after you get home.

So our advice: take the train from Rome to Florence (about an hour and a half), pick up a car there for your Tuscany days, drop it back in Florence, and take the train on to Venice, where a car is useless anyway. You'll also need an International Driving Permit alongside your US license; AAA issues them.

>> More on renting a car in Italy and driving in Italy.

Adding it up

For Jen's trip, ten days at about €100 per person per day comes to around €1,000 each, plus the car and the tourist tax. That leaves no room for Prada, but plenty for postcards, a cappuccino every morning and the mandatory two scoops of gelato every afternoon.

>> For a category-by-category breakdown, see how to budget for an Italy trip, and read up on using ATMs and debit cards in Italy before you go.

Have a great trip, Jen!