Early on in my trip, my mom decided she’d be spending the last week of my trip with me in Italy, visiting Venice, Florence and Rome. I was looking forward to this for almost the whole trip! My mom is great at joining me in the search for economical travel (and was an excellent sport!), so we tried to do the best at seeing as much as we could, but economically!
In all, in 8 days through Central Italy, I spent $1,144.45.
How did that work out?
Airfare: $0
I was already in Lake Como, so it was a cheap and easy train ride to get to Venice.
Visa: $0.00
Italy has a free visa on arrival for US citizens.
Accommodations: $427.35
My mom was a great sport at staying at all sorts of hotels – I think she (and I) liked the Venice and Florence one the best, and we had quite the situation with the hotel in Rome. I think I’m going to be mad about that for ages! (Whatever you do, don’t go with Booking House. It’s a scam!)
Activities: $78.00
For Venice, Florence, and Pisa, the cities themselves were the attractions (and there’s lots of free stuff to do), so we bought tickets for the Siena Duomo (including the climb to the top), the Colosseum, the Vatican Museum, and the Vatican Necropolis tour.
We were also really lucky in Florence – we got there on the first Sunday of the month, so the museums were free! We got to go to the Academia and see David for free!
Transportation: $297.60
This was a big expense because we were moving so much, and around expensive places. We took the high-speed trains between Venice and Florence, and Florence and Rome. Then the vaporettos in Venice manage to be quite expensive, and then local transit!
Food: $316.20
We ate out for almost every meal, as I hadn’t booked any AirBnBs for us. It was SO good. Every night, we found fun and economical restaurants, and enjoyed the wonder that is great Italian food!
Souvenirs: $19.20
I have a collection of small souvenirs from each of the world wonders I’ve visited, so I knew I wanted something in Rome. I ended up finding this really pretty rosary at St Peter’s that came in a great case, so I bought it!
And when we were in Florence, I might have splurged on a leather purse that is not showing up here… that’s coming out of my “clothes” budget rather than the trip budget.
Miscellaneous: $6.00
When we were in Pisa, we paid to store our bags at the train station.
Ultimately, it came out to an average of about $143.05 per day. This was a tiny bit more expensive than I’d hoped for, but completely worth it to have memories with my mom for the rest of my life! Also, I knew at that point that I had a bit of room in the trip budget to play with, so I also didn’t mind it! (And it’s still an awesomely economical price for Central Italy!)
One Comment
Carli Chapman
I’m honestly impressed at how inexpensively you were able to knock out all those attractions, delicious food and everything else in Italy! Way to go! I’ll have to confer with you whenever I get Braden over to Europe 🙂 p.s. that last photo of the Duomo in Florence is gorgeous! Actually they all are – you have a gift.