My wife and I are presently planning a trip to Italy and our itinerary and length of stay will be very much dependent on costs in Italy. Can anyone help me with ballpark figures for food and accommodation? We are budget travelers and require nothing fancy --- just clean and safe. <BR>For example, how does Rome (and the rest of Italy) compare with say Paris or London? <BR>We found Paris to be expensive but manageable. We stayed in 2star hotels, picnicked for lunch, and ate dinner from the fixed price menus in various guidebook recommended restaurants. <BR>On the other hand, the prices in London were astronomical and made everything prohibitively expensive! <BR>Any help would be much appreciated. <BR>

Tony, General costs in Italy are less than France and alot less than England. <BR>A decent 2 star will cost you about <BR>$60-80 in the small towns, but more in <BR>Venice and some of the chic resorts. <BR>You can do a 2 star experience for about <BR>$125/day. The car is the most expensive <BR>item in Italy, but the rail prices are <BR>very cheap. Go to www.initaly.com and <BR>find my article on " Budget '99" and it <BR>will give you more detail. Good luck !

Tony, <BR>We just returned from 2 weeks, mostly Rome & Florence. In Rome I had only reserved for the first 2 nights because our frequent-Rome-visitor friend kept insisting that we could find cheaper hotels in the same neighborhood but we'd have to be there to do it. Turns out the place we did stay was one she used to know as a student rat trap/cheap hotel, but is now much nicer (and cost 240000 lire/night for 3 with bath). If you reserve far in advance (more than 4 months, by my experience) you can get a room w/o bath; also the Termini area should be less expensive. We were in the Campo dei Fiori area, more expensive though a great area. I'd spend extra to stay there for the ambience and availability of evening options. I found our hotel on the net, www.venere.it and made the rsv by email, directly to the hotel rather than via the website. Dinner for 2 adults and 10 yr old boy rarely topped 70000 lire, including at least 1/2 L house wine, but no dessert. We usually each had a pasta dish and a salad or vegetable to share. More than enough food (and room left for gelato). We had several grocery-store dinners, as my son refers to them, but still felt the restaurant meals to be more than reasonable. We also ate sandwiches or pizza slices from bars for lunch and sometimes dinner, and enjoyed buying fruit from the markets. (If I'd stayed away from the tempting shops we'd have spent yet less money!) HOpe this helps.

I'd started out to make the point that I think many of the extreme-budget hotels in Rome have spruced up, for the Jubilee or whatever reason, and accordingly raised their rates.

For planning purposes, excluding intercity travel expenses you should calculate about Lit 300,000/day in Venice, Florence and Rome and Lit 200,000/day in smaler cities (2-star hotel basis). Give or take a little, estimate roughly 60% for logding and breakfast, 30% for snack lunch and dinner and 10% for local transportation and monument entry fees. <BR> Once you go about inquiring about hotels (your most expensive budgeting item) you may do the necessary adjustments. <BR> If you're travelling next year, hotel prices will go up ... but you may still keep it within budget by staying off the prime lodging areas (e.g., in Rome it's cheaper to stay near the Colosseum than, say, Campo dei Fiori ...). <BR> You also should allow for currency devaluations. Don't know about the Canadian dollar ... two years ago in July, the US dollar was about as strong as it is today. One year ago, also in July, it was 8-9% weaker! <BR> Happy planning <BR> <BR> Paulo <BR>

Wow! What a wealth of information! Thank you all for being so generous with both your time and your knowledge of Italy. Your input will make the planning process much easier. <BR>We will be visiting Milan, Venice, Florence and of course Rome. Any specific hotels or restaurants (2star) that you recommend? Any we should avoid?

WHEN ARE YOU GOING?

you shouldn't miss a trip even briefly to the Riviera, <BR>www.hotelfasce.it <BR> <BR>Have a super trip.