Need help with some updated thoughts on a daily budget for Venice, Florence, Tuscany countyside and Rome. (This will be in Sept 2005 for our honeymoon.)

All figures are per day for the 2 of us and in euros. Luckily, she's not a big eater. :-)

Venice for 3 full days - Food 60, Ent'mt 30 and Souvenirs 15.

Florence for 2 full days - Food 50, Ent'mt 20 and Souvenirs 15.

Tuscan countryside (agriturismo) for 6 full days - Food 40, Ent'mt 20 and Souvenirs 15.

Rome for 5 full days - Food 50, Ent'mt 30 and Souvenirs 15.

I'm thinking light lunch around 20 euros or less for the two of us in the cities while we're playing tourist and making lunch while we're driving around in the Tuscan countryside. We have use of a kitchen at the farm we're staying at in Tuscany, so maybe one or two dinners at the apt. Hopefully, we won't use up all the Ent'mt and Sounvenirs budget and divert some funds into food.

How does these numbers sound? Am I crazy?? Thanks for looking at this.

Will you not be having wine with your meals? But, as I recall you are both "foodies and wine lovers". That being the case your budget for meals is on the low side. Why don't you think about cutting the travel from place to place and pick two locations for your whole trip. Moving around as you have previously outlined eats up a lot of valuable time plus it plays havoc with your budgetary contraints.

First trimming I would make is to eliminate the car rental. Choose Venice and Rome which will enable you to do quite well without a car. Then you can use the "car money" to better satisfy your oenogastronomic interests.

Peter

Thx for the response. Unfortunately or fortunately, I already booked the Tuscan farmhouse for a week. So the itinerary is pretty much set.

If this was pre Euro I would say that the budget would be doable but now that all in Italy has been rounded up you should put about 20 or 30% more. Dinner for two with house wine in Rome and Florence is every bit of 50 + Euros.

Danny

My wife and I are on our 6th year in Tuscany.

Our budget for 14 days is 120€ per day for

everything (except large gifts) We eat out 12

nights. We always bring a small amount back for

the following vist.


Enjoy.

Schang, I believe you are very low on all your estimates. If you travelled before on these budgets, than you know something I don't.

I'd say you should double your meal allowance to have decent meals, with some wine. 20 Euro for two will buy you panini. You'll need a refreshing drink, a gelato, etc. And it's a honeymoon; you'll be very hungry! I know I was!

As to entertaiment, what do you plan? We went in Florence to a so-so concert at the Saint Mark church and it was 30 Euro for two. You would want probably to get in some museums, and the entry tickets are not cheap either.

Ditto for the stay at the farm. While it may appear that preparing your own meals is substantially lowering the cost, once you get into a Coop or grocery store, reality will set in, as you'll discover you'll need all kind of stuff for a week of stay.

In short, please review your resources and reconsider.

I agree with all here that you are way low on your daily budget; I spent more than that per day without eating any meat and ate in moderately priced restaurants. Perhaps if you read some of the restaurant reviews on this site you could get some idea of what a typical meal out might cost. I also had a kitchen and bought food at an alimentari but even there it was more expensive than you are allowing.

I'm not sure what you mean by souvenirs. Italy has become so expensive that, unless you are talking simply about postcards and the like, you need to figure more for purchases. A single scarf in the San Lorenzo market would probably eat up your budget.

Maybe you could review your other expenditures and see where to cut some costs, so you will not be counting pennies everywhere and risk spoiling the pleasure of your honeymoon.

M

Just to put things in perspective: a breakfast or snack of a coffee and a pastry is 1.50 euro in a nameless bar deep into the bowels of the Milano subway (peripheral stop); a panino in a bar costs 3-4 euro; last time I had a pizza in Pistoia the final price (two pizza, one antipasto, one dessert, two bottles of water, one coffee) was about 25 euro. If you upgrade to a touristy area you must also upgrade the prices by at least the 50%.