My wife and I will be visiting Italy this summer - primarily Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast areas. I would appreciate some guidance as to how to budget for meals. I realize that as in the US, the food ranges from cheap to expensive. I'm just looking for some GENERAL advice on what a typical, good meal might cost for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Thanks.

Hi Chris. <BR> <BR>We spent about US35 per day for the two of us. Bear in mind we are budget travellers; some days we were happy with pizza for dinner. On the other hand, we never went hungry. Hope this helps.

I should add that this figure assumes breakfast is included with one's hotel,that one picnics for lunch, and of course does not include wine. So I doubt you should budget much less than this.

Chris, Here is what I plan: <BR>breakfast---free <BR>lunch---$20 for 2 <BR>dinner--$35 for 2 <BR>gelato/cappucino--$5 <BR> <BR>That is $60/day/couple--you add a hotel at an average of $140 and you get my the daily budget of $200--about right for food an lodging. Have fun !

We always eat our breakfasts in a cafe -most of the time, hotel breakfasts are overpriced. Here's my guess and what we spend (for 2): <BR> <BR>Breakfast: $5 (coffee & croissants) <BR>Lunch: $8-30 <BR>Dinner: $40 <BR> <BR>Lunch is going to be your biggest variable. Because lunch tends to be a leisurely affair in Italy, we lose out on sight-seeing time, and I get tired after a while of two 2-hour meals each day. So most of the time we buy pizza-by-the-slice, or cheese & bread & fruit from a market, which is $8 or cheaper. On the few days that we have eaten a restaurant lunch, it's the $30. So consider what kind of lunch you're likely to want. <BR> <BR>For dinner, we look for untouristy (as much as possible), good local food. We always have a bottle of wine, and usually have 2 courses (i.e., appetizer and pasta, or pasta and main course, and rarely dessert and/or coffee. <BR> <BR>For in between, we usually have a glass of wine, cafe latte and/or gelato more than once a day. <BR> <BR>Hope this helps!

Hi Chris, <BR> <BR>My husband and I recently returned from a trip to Italy and on average we spent $100 - $120 a day between the two of us. This was for everything (meals, sights, gelato, postcards, bus/metro and the occasional taxi fare), except lodging. We really only ate one big meal a day, either lunch or dinner, and the other was a take out sandwich or pizza. We had two dinners at Ristorantes that were around $50.00 total (anti pasta, salad, main course, dessert and wine), otherwise the meals were between $25 and $35. Pretty darn cheap when you think about it! You can eat a much more expensive places, but we pretty much stuck with the average ristorante/trattoria. <BR> <BR>My definition of breakfast is a cup of coffee and a pastry. Fortunately, Italy is the place for this and it's dirt cheap. A Cafe latte and chocolate croissant together were around $1.50 - 3.00. This should give you an idea why Starbucks hasn't managed to infiltrate Italy yet! <BR> <BR>Mary <BR> <BR>P.S. We had some remarkably good food in the bars that serve food cafeteria style and warm it up in a microwave for you so don't be put off by the presentation!

topping - - it's a brisk moving afternoon! <BR>

Topping

Does ChrisP have a handle on finding this thread yet? <BR>