When planning out a budget for our Italy trip one thing we wanted to know was, what does food cost in Italy? We like to keep our travel budgets modest. We like to enjoy local foods, and eat out on occasion but without over-spending. If you are planning your trip and want a base point for how much food in Italy will cost, here is what we paid for food and drink in October 2018.
Breakfast in Italy
We didn’t spend a lot on breakfast in Italy. In Milan, our Airbnb host supplied some pastries and In Corniglia, our Airbnb host also ran a cafe and breakfast was included in our price.
Venice Croissant: €1.20
Como McDonald’s Egg & Bacon McMuffin and Cappuccino: €3.00
Lunch cost in Italy
We found eating lunch in Italy while sticking to a budget was easy. We don’t tend to dine out for lunch when travelling, preferring to grab something to go. In Italy, there are many little stores selling ready-to-go sandwiches and pizza slices. In Milan, we had a late lunch at McDonald’s and it’s not a cheap option.
Milan McDonald’s 2x meals: €16.70
Milan airport lunch for 2: €13.00
Venice salami sandwich: €4.00
Florence Panino: €3.50
Monterosso pizza slice: €3.00
Rome sandwich: €5.50 from Baker Boss. This was delicious!
Bellagio panino / pizza slice: €5.00 from Bellavita. This place is labelled as Italian street food and it was a favourite from our trip. The staff were incredibly friendly. We had a salami panino and large pizza slices from here. We also stopped in after dinner one night and got take away tiramisu.
Dinner cost in Italy
For dinner in Italy we ate out, had takeaway pizza and one night in Florence we cooked fresh pasta and sauce that we bought from the Central Market. This was a good balance of enjoying dining out and eating cheap. Even cheap eats are good in Italy, we still long for an Italian pizza.
Milan Margherita pizza: €4.00, Salami and Pancetta pizza: €6.00 from Tre Colori Pizzeria. We bought pizza from this place twice as it was a short walk from our apartment. I think it was the best we had in Italy and the best value.
Rome salami Pizza: €8.00
Rome Merulana cafe: we walked in here after being rejected from another restaurant. It was closer to the Colosseum and looked like an Irish bar. We thought we were walking into a total tourist trap but my pasta was really nice and prices were average. Porcini fettuccine: €12.00
Florence fresh pasta and sauce: €5.00 from Central Market to cook at apartment, 300g of each.
Como Riva Cafe: €33.00 for pizza, Gnocchi, beer, glass of wine.
Bellagio carbonara: €10.00 at La Fontana.
Corniglia A Cantina da Mananan: This was our best meal in Italy. Tim had ravioli with walnut sauce and I had testaroli pasta with pesto. It was all so delicious. 2x pasta, 2x wine and cover charge: €34.00
Gelato cost in Italy
No trip to Italy would be complete without eating gelato. We read tips online to avoid stores right next to tourist sights and the ones with gelato piled high. Some of them, you can’t actually see the gelato as it is covered in metal containers to keep it fresh. We tried the fancy Venchi in Milan and also scored a 1 euro cone in Rome. We only ever got small cups or cones.
Milan Venchi: €3.20
Venice GROM: €2.60
Bellagio: €2.00
Coffee cost in Italy
We had read before our trip that the cheapest option was to order and drink your coffee at the bar. We were pretty intimidated about buying coffee in Italy. Often the bar is really busy. Everywhere we went we experienced friendliness and patience. A good idea is to watch what the locals do, some places you pay first and other places you order, drink and pay after.
Venice Macchiato: €2.00
Venice Cappuccino: €2.50
Wine / drinks cost in Italy
During our time in Italy, we loved all the wine we had both in restaurants and from bottles we bought to drink in our accommodation.
White wine bottle: €5.65 from a supermarket in Florence.
Como Lago Food&Co: €11.00 for a glass of white and beer served with snacks.
Como Riva Cafe: €6.00 glass of Pinot Grigio.
Corniglia glass of white: €4.00
Florence Aperol spritz: €4.00 during happy hour.
Water in Italy
Venice bottle water: €1.50 from a little grocer, other stores were more.
6pack from a supermarket: €1.85
You can also use free water fountains to fill up your drinking bottle.
Hopefully, this gives you a good idea of what food costs in Italy so you can budget for all the pizza, pasta, gelato and wine! Read our full Italy trip cost breakdown.
Great post with lots of important information. I think I’d spend all my food budget on coffee and gelato! LOL!
haha yes, you need a separate gelato budget!
This post is super detailed! When visiting Rome, we tried our best to avoid the tourist traps as well. All of the food in the pictures looks delicious!
Thank you. We came across some great places and wonderful food.
Such a useful post! I think it can be hard to judge how much money you are going to need when you are actually on your trip. It sounds that Italy isn’t too badly priced, and the food and drinks you had look lovely! I like to do a mix of eating out and eating in like you to keep costs down.
Thanks for sharing!
Aimsy xoxo
https://www.aimsysantics.co.uk
Thanks! Yes it is hard to know how much money to set aside. It’s Italy so I had to have a gelato a day but always have the next trip in the back of my mind so we don’t go crazy on spending money.
Ugh everything looks SO delicious! I’ve always wanted to try pizza in Italy!
All so good. Dreaming of that pesto pasta in Corniglia.
Thanks for the detailed info! We are planning a trip to Italy this time next year with a baby, it’d be great to see a blog with your entire breakdown of costs for the whole trip? I’m mostly concerned accomodation will cost a lot needing room for a baby!
Thanks Clare. Full trip cost breakdown coming soon! We didn’t have our kids on this trip but some of our AirBnB’s would have been fine for all of us.