What Italy costs: 135.6 euros a night, on average

A foreign visitor to Italy spent on average 135.6¹ euros per person per night in 2024, everything included, according to the Bank of Italy. That is a measured average, not a quote, and where you sleep moves it more than anything else.

The only official total

The Bank of Italy interviews travelers at the border every year to compile the balance of payments. Its 2024 figure for overnight visitors is 135.6¹ euros per person per night, covering lodging, food, transport and shopping, on an average trip of 6.6 nights.

The average hides a wide spread. Americans spent 191.1² euros a night, British visitors 143.3², Germans 135.7², the French 129.5² and Spanish visitors 103.1². Those are real receipts, collected from people leaving the country, which is why they are more useful than any daily budget you'll find on a travel blog.

Where you sleep decides the number

Visitors staying in hotels and holiday villages spent 213.5³ euros per night in total in 2024, by the same survey's split by type of lodging, those in a B&B or agriturismo 137.3³, guests of friends or relatives 97.1³, and people in a rented house 91.5³. These are whole-trip figures per night, not room rates.

So the first budget decision isn't the city, it's the bed. Everything in the next section is small by comparison.

Prices with a published list

Sights. The Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine ticket is 18 euros. The Uffizi is 25 euros bought on the day and 29 in advance. The Pantheon has cost 7 euros since 1 July 2026. State museums, monuments and archaeological sites are free on the first Sunday of every month; civic and private museums aren't part of that scheme.

Getting around a city. In Rome a 100 min⁴ute ATAC ticket is 1.50 euros and a 72 hour pass is 22 euros. In Milan the ordinary ATM ticket is 2.20 euros for 90 minutes. In Venice a single 75 minute ride on the water buses costs 9.50 euros, which is why most visitors there buy a timed pass.

Airports and longer hops. The Leonardo Express from Fiumicino to Roma Termini is 14 euros one way. Regional train fares are fixed: Bari to Lecce is 13.20¹⁵ euros on a Regionale Veloce. The Blu Jet fast ferry across the Strait of Messina is 2.50 euros one way.

The charges you pay on the spot

Tourist tax in Rome runs from 3 to 10 euros per person per night, on top of the room and often in cash at check-in. Florence goes from 3.50 to 8, Milan from 3 to 12. The tourist tax page has the rules and exemptions.

The coperto on a restaurant bill is a separate charge that no national law regulates, and it has to be on the menu. A tip is voluntary by law. The tipping and coperto page explains why the two are not the same thing.

What no official source publishes

There is no official price for a hotel room in an Italian city, no official price for a restaurant meal and no typical amount for the coperto. High speed fares on Frecciarossa and Italo change with demand and have no fixed list. We print none of those, because any figure you read for them was estimated by whoever wrote it.

The Bank of Italy average is the honest substitute: it is what people actually spent. Take the lodging line that matches your trip, add the listed prices above for what you plan to see, and you have a budget built on receipts rather than guesses.

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