# What a trip to Italy really costs: city taxes, cover charges and the euro

> Italy has several small, easy-to-miss charges that add up — a nightly city tax, a per-person restaurant cover charge, and museum lines you can pay to skip. Here is a realistic budget.

Source: https://roamfact.com/en/analysis/italy-trip-cost-and-money/

Published: 2026-10-12

Italy's costs vary enormously by city — Venice and Rome run noticeably higher than Puglia or Sicily — but a few charges are nationwide and catch first-time visitors off guard.

## A realistic daily budget

A comfortable mid-range day in a major city — a good hotel, three meals with at least one real sit-down meal, local transit and one paid sight — typically runs $150–$230 per person in Rome, Florence or Venice, and noticeably less, often $100–$160, in southern Italy or smaller towns.

## The charges that catch people off guard

Most Italian cities charge a tourist tax (tassa di soggiorno) per person per night, paid directly to the hotel at check-in or check-out, usually $2–$7 per night and not included in the room rate you booked online. Restaurants commonly add a small per-person cover charge (coperto) of $2–$4 regardless of what you order, plus sometimes a service charge (servizio) of 10–15% — check the menu for both before assuming the price per dish is the full cost. Popular sites like the Colosseum, the Vatican Museums and the Uffizi sell skip-the-line tickets at a premium that is often worth paying in peak season to avoid multi-hour waits.

## Cash, cards and the euro

Cards are accepted almost everywhere in cities, including small cafés, but smaller towns, markets and some family-run trattorias still prefer or require cash. Use a no-foreign-transaction-fee card for purchases and withdraw euros from bank ATMs rather than independent currency exchange kiosks, which are common in tourist centers and post noticeably worse rates.