Budget Travel
 

I have been an avid European traveler but this will be my first trip to Italy since they have converted to euro. My question is, this time I am going with my best friend and we are going to Venice,Rome, Florence and Lake Como. Our lodging is all taken care off and just need your opinion about budgeting my funds to about 100e a day for 11 days. Is this enough? just for train fare and food. Our biggest meal will probably just on dinner time and gifts will be limited to just small items for my twin girls and my wife.

Do you plan on going to any tourist attractions while you are in these cities? A gondola ride in Venice is nearly 100 E. Remember all these tourist sites will have entrance fees. Unless you don't plan to go inside! The churches are free. But museums will have an entrance fee. I think 100E is a little tight. It is enough for food but what about activities & transportation?

Many churches actually cost a few Euros, in both Florence and Venice.

I do think your budget is almost possible, given you have accommodation taken care of. I would allocate it like this: 25 Euros per day for attractions, 5 Euros per day for transport within the city, 20 Euros for food. But that will mean no formal sit-down dinners for the most part. Also, you'll have to consider the cost of trains between those places. About 29 Euros between Florence and Rome on the fast Eurostar train. About 26 Euros between Venice and Florence on the Eurostar, but about 17 Euros on the slower train with a change. (Just going by memory here, and these figures are probably old.)

I haven't been to Lake Como, but based on posts here, it seems like an area that's less amenable to budget travel than most. You'd do your budget a favor by chopping it, is my guess, particularly with only 11 days, which really is barely enough for the "Big Three".

I think €100 is OK, but as said by others, you will have to compromise. You will not be able to have a 3 course meal every day in a restaurant, but it is possible to eat on the go and not spend more than €20 in a day, so you could budget €40 a day for food, then splash out a couple of times on the trip. Venice is an expensive city, with Vaporetti being particularly expensive in contrast to most public transport in Italy. In Rome there is an inexpensive integrated transport ticket that will probably cost you less than €10 for 3 days.

I tend to be a budget traveller. Having looked through the accounts of my trips to Italy in the last year (Lucca, SIena and Sicily) I find my average spend is around €75 a day excluding accomadation.

Since you didn't ask, I won't answer that 10 nights spread out that much will make for to much travel. Since I didn't say that, I agree that this is tight-but doable.
Transportation will add up, but if you are careful you can eat well with that allowance.

If you drink the house wine and not the more expensive drinks, you should be ok. Order the house wine by the crafe.

The requested budget is 100 Euros for two people, including train fare, food, local transport, tourist attractions, and gifts. I don't think many restaurant meals are possible on that budget. I think some responses might be saying 100 Euros per person.

We usually eat on the cheap when we travel. We budgeted about 30e each for dinner and 15e for lunch. For us, it was plenty. Some days we spent a little more, some days a lot less.

Let me clarify my question. It will be 100e for each person not for 2 people. I think I will budget myself to about 150e a day for 11 days. That should be plenty for food and some museums.

150e per day should be plenty. Have a great trip.

I thought we answered that. Yes, it should be enough.

Actually, to clarify, your original post said it was for food and train fare and then you mention gifts. Depending of course where you go and how often, it may not be enough.

50 euro per day per person including so much transportation will be quite tight imo.

I mentioned small items nothing expensive. Thanks for all the replies

Sorry, your other clarification/post wasn't showing when I made mine.

Yes I think 100 euro per person per day in plenty for what you describe. Some days you'll have more expense because of train tickets, some days you can eat cheap to balance things out.

Thank you Suze!