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TOURISM

How much more expensive is it to holiday in Italy this summer?

High inflation and widespread demand are driving up the cost of holidays in Italy this summer. Here's where prices are rising fastest - and what items will set you back the most.

How much more will a beach holiday in Italy set you back this year?
Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP.

If you’re going on holiday to Italy this summer, be prepared to shell out more than you might have planned on.

Thanks to runaway post-pandemic inflation, the cost of living has risen in all areas – and holiday-related expenses are no exception.

“The 2023 summer holidays will be remembered as the most expensive ever,” Furio Truzzi, president of the consumer rights association Assoutenti, said in a recent press release.

READ ALSO: What to expect when travelling to Italy in summer 2023

The average family of four will pay €800 more for a week-long holiday in Italy this year compared to 2022, Giovanna Capuzzo, vice president of the consumer federation Federconsumatori, told Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper.

The priciest Italy destinations for summer 2023 are Sicily, Sardinia and the Amalfi Coast, with the cost of seven nights’ three-star accommodation for two adults and two children costing up to €22,343 in one particularly pricey hotel in the Sicilian coastal town of Cefalù in peak season.

From hotels to restaurants, here’s how much more you can expect to fork over for your holiday in Italy this year.

Flights

Data from Italy’s national statistics office indicates that international flights to and from Italy have gone up by as much as 59 percent in the last year, Truzzi told the Corriere della Sera newspaper in April.

Italian domestic flights, meanwhile, have risen by an eye-watering 71.5 percent over the same period, he said.

READ ALSO: Why are flights to and from Italy so expensive this summer?

Museums and tourist sites

Museums are also increasing their entry fees: peak-season admission to Florence’s Uffizi galleries rose from €20 to €25 last March, and entry to Naples’ Palazzo Reale now costs €10, up from €6 in 2022.

Rome’s Pantheon, which until now has been free to all, is introducing a €5 fee for tourists from outside Rome from July 1st.

READ ALSO: How much more will Italian museums cost this summer?

Visitors to Rome's Pantheon will be charged an entry fee from July.

Visitors to Rome’s Pantheon will be charged an entry fee from July. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP.

Italy’s government has also announced that tickets to all of Italy’s state-run museums will go up by one euro from June 15th to September 15th in order to raise funds for the Emilia Romagna region, which was devastated by heavy flooding in May.

Tourist taxes:

City tourist taxes are also going up in 2023, after Italy’s latest budget law raised the maximum limit to €10.

1,011 municipalities are levying the tax in 2023, with the popular northern destinations of Trento and Bolzano introducing the fee for the first time this year, according to Corriere.

READ ALSO: Eight things you can do in Rome for free

In Florence, the tax has risen from €5 to €8 – as much as 60 percent, while Naples is also reportedly considering raising its daily rate of 50c.

Restaurants

Taking a sizeable bite out of holidaymakers’ budgets this year are Italian restaurant prices, which have risen by an average of 6.8 percent since 2022, according to the results of a survey published in May by the consumer rights watchdog Codacons.

Viterbo, north of Rome, is where diners can expect to find the starkest increase, as meals cost a whopping 16 percent more than they did 12 months ago. Siena, where costs have risen 11.5 percent, comes in second.

Despite these increases, dining out in Italy is more popular than ever before: the number of people going to restaurants increased by 18 percent between January and April according to a recent survey, even though eight in ten Italian restaurants increased their prices.

The cost of dining out in Italy has risen across the country.

The cost of dining out in Italy has risen across the country. Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP.

Hotels

Hotel accommodation costs are rising by an average of 30 percent, reports Corriere della Sera.

The cost of staying in a hotel by the sea is anticipated to increase by 28 percent this year, with total expenses for seaside holidays averaging out at 17 percent more than in 2022, according to Il Sole 24 Ore.

Mountain stays, meanwhile, will cost an average of nine percent more than in 2022, the publication estimates.

Beach clubs

If you like to prefer to experience the beach while reclining in a sea of sun loungers and umbrellas – as many Italians do – you can also expect to pay more for the pleasure this year.

READ ALSO: MAP: Which regions of Italy have the most Blue Flag beaches in 2023?

Beachgoers in some areas are being charged as much as 25 percent more to access private clubs than in 2022, according to a recent Codacons survey, with rental charges for sunbeds and umbrellas increasing by an average of 10 to 15 percent across the country.

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TOURISM

‘Not even that ancient’: The harshest TripAdvisor comments about Italy’s sights

From Roman ruins to grand Gothic palaces, Italy’s most popular tourist attractions welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors every year – but not everyone leaves satisfied.

'Not even that ancient': The harshest TripAdvisor comments about Italy's sights

With its rich cultural heritage and plenty of art and architecture wonders, Italy draws hundreds of thousands of visitors from all corners of the world every year. 

But a quick scroll through the review section of travel website TripAdvisor will be enough to show that some of the country’s most famous attractions aren’t to everyone’s taste.

Colosseum, Rome

It may be Italy’s biggest tourist attraction, but even the Colosseum – the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, dating back to 80 AD – fails to impress some.

“I came. I saw. I left,” wrote one reviewer, saying that looking at pictures of the building and reading about its history will spare you from “a long wait line, a port a john [sic] bathroom, and a big disappointment”.

READ ALSO: Nine tips for making the most of a Rome city break

Others were seemingly not so happy with the overall state of the attraction.

“[It] was a lot more broken than I thought it would be, at £15 a pop you’d think they’d invest in repairing it,” one wrote. 

“Not even got a roof? When they finishing it [sic]?” asked another. 

Milan, Duomo 

Though it is often regarded as one of, if not the greatest example of Italian Gothic architecture, not everyone seems to be impressed by Milan’s Duomo cathedral. 

“The outside is gaudy and tacky as the worst of Las Vegas,” while “the inside is as bad taste as the outside” and not worth the wait, “even if they paid you”, one reviewer wrote.

READ ALSO: Stay away! How Europe’s most popular spots are fighting overtourism

Another said the Duomo was no different than any “old cathedral” found in every European city, claiming that “pigeons watching [sic] is more exciting than this building”.

Speaking of pigeons, one tourist warned future visitors about the aggressiveness of the local bird population, saying that the area surrounding the Duomo is “swarming with thousands of pigeons that have long ago lost any fear of humans” and will “fly directly at your head”, forcing you to “take evasive action”.

Just another cathedral? The famed Duomo in Milan. Photo by Martin Anselmo on Unsplash

Doge’s Palace, Venice

Venice’s Palazzo Ducale is the third most-visited tourist attraction in the country and arguably one of the best-preserved traces of the ancient Venetian Republic’s power. 

But the palace isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – at least judging from its reviews.

“When you go inside, there’s nothing to see except a lot of paintings on the ceilings and high on the walls. The paintings are impressive but very samey,” one reviewer wrote.

READ ALSO: What’s the difference between Italy’s city taxes and new ‘tourist tax’?

“Really boring,” complained another, saying that the rooms were “bland” and “the view never got any better”. 

Other visitors said they were disappointed with some of their tour guides’ choices.

One wrote: “Our guide took pleasure in telling about people being tortured here. It was a bit grizzly [sic]. Personally I would give the place a miss.” 

Tourists sit under the archway of the Doge's Palace in Venice

The Doge’s Palace in Venice, which some visitors found abit “samey”. Photo by Marco BERTORELLO / AFP

Pompeii 

Even the Pompeii archaeological site, which consists of the ruins of a city buried under volcanic ash following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, has its fair share of detractors.

A reviewer described the site as being “poorly paved street after poorly paved street of pretty much the same old same old terraced house over and over and over and over”.

Another said: “I really don’t get what the hype is about.

“It’s not even that ancient since they had to build so many structures around it to keep it standing. Even the freaking pillars didn’t make it (some barely did I guess).”

One reviewer even went as far as saying it was the “worst place” he’d ever visited, mentioning he had “too much ground to cover in sweltering heat” and he “should have stayed at the nice beaches of Vico Equense”. 

Trevi Fountain, Rome

A prime example of Italian Baroque aesthetics, the Trevi fountain is one of Rome’s most widely recognised symbols worldwide, but not all visitors are impressed by it.

“It splashes and splashes. It spurtles and flows. It fountains and gurgles and is as romantic as my oldest pairs of smelly socks,” wrote one reviewer, who concluded they felt “let down”.

Tourists around Rome's Trevi Fountain

Tourists around Rome’s Trevi Fountain in March 2024. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

That said, many reviewers expressed appreciation for the fountain’s architecture, but complained that their visit was ruined by hordes of fellow tourists. These complaints are far from unjustified given the attraction’s long-standing overcrowding issues

One reviewer suggested that “packing a pair of 8 foot stilts” may be the only way to “ensure a satisfying visit to the Trevi”.

Another called the attraction a “claustrophobia mecca” that’s “nearly impossible to deal with because of the thousands of pushy, sweaty, rude and large tourists”.

Have you seen a surprising review of an Italian landmark? Are there any Italian sights you think are overrated? Let us know in the comments section below.

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