Trevi Fountain

Planning a low cost trip to Italy is possible. The Italians themselves, so typically ingenious and sage, usually adopt some simple tricks to save when traveling in their country. Without giving up the amazing landscapes and monuments of the Bel Paese. Well, this is what we want to offer you, with 5 tips for a low cost trip to Italy, so that even your holidays can be cheap … and chic!

Are you planning a holiday in Tuscany and Umbria? Want to visit Florence, Siena, Perugia and Assisi? Choose to stay near these cities to save on accommodation costs, you can sleep at a Bed & Breakfast on the Chianti hills, or on the shores of Lake Trasimeno instead. The B&Bs available in this area are very characteristic, housed in old houses or in small ancient villages. B&B owners in Tuscany and Umbria are always very friendly, they speak good English, prepare special gourmet dinners and are excellent sources of tourist information. Prices for a B&B start at 25-30 Euros per person.

If you want to visit a big city of art, apart from booking your favorite budget hotel in Milan or Rome, you can purchase special cards for tourists either online or at the point of sale on site. With a Milano Card (25 Euros for 2 days) or a Roma Pass (30 euro for 3 days) you can move around the city without paying the tickets on urban transport networks, you get free or heavily discounted access to museums and historic buildings, you can call a multilingual phone service for any need, you get discounts at restaurants and hotels.

If you are young or… just feel young at heart, a good idea to sleep on a budget in Italy is to look for accommodation in a hostel. Hostels in major cities are generally excellent, clean and well equipped, but especially cheap, from 13-15 euro per person in a dorm, or 20 € in double rooms.

If you really want to save on your trip to Italy, you can choose to skip Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence and Naples. Focus on small towns instead, small but lovely towns where you will find all the classic Italian spirit. Near Milan, Pavia and Vigevano are very nice, just a few kilometers from Rome there are the historical Viterbo and Rieti, Vicenza and Padua are two jewels not far from Venice, in South Italy there are towns like Melfi, Matera, Crotone, Catania and Agrigento, which alone deserve a trip to Italy.

Last but not least: fashion and shopping. If your trip to Italy is aimed at the purchase of luxury goods in the beautiful showrooms in via Montenapoleone or Via della Spiga in Milan, or in the exclusive shops of Via del Babuino and Via Condotti in Rome, then the best time to get there is during the end-of-season sales periods. Winter sales usually start on January 6, summer sales in early July. Combining Italian haute couture and a bit of saving is much more difficult at other times of the year.

Andrea is a travel blogger, web programmer, seo apprentice and amateur photographer based in Milan. He has been traveling through most of Europe and loves writing about it. When not wandering through seas and mountains he’s at work for Traveleurope.com