Our Costs in Italy

We have had lots of fun in Italy but we always feared that this country would be the one that blew our budget. Why was that the case?

Italy is just generally expensive. But we had also planned to do extra activities which we have wanted to do for a very long time, activities that were not cheap. Considering these would be a once in a life-time experience, we didn’t want to be stingy but we didn’t want the costs going crazy.

So, how did we do on the finances?

During our 39 days stay in Italy we spent €2,634. Our projected costs were €2,765. This means we have been under budget by €131.

So, which areas have been the winners in Italy:

1) Camping – Under budget by €131

We spent €226. The majority of these costs (€119) relate to the accommodation on the Aeolian Islands, where we climbed the two volcanoes.

The remaining of the costs relate to the campsites and aires we stayed when we visited Naples and Roma. Otherwise, free motorhomes aires with basic facilities such as water and chemical disposals are scattered all over the country. So big savings achieved in this area.

2) Motorhome– Under budget by €217

Dora has behaved herself in Italy, so no repairs were needed except for the fiasco of the broken roof light, which at €275 currently sits on the credit card, but we are expecting Lidl to fully compensate us, as the accident was down to them.

3) Food – Under budget by €152

These savings have come from dining out budget as we didn’t go out as much as we expected. Supermarket food came within budget. We continued to shop in Lidl, but even here it is not that cheap compared to other countries!

4) Other – Under budget by €44

The biggest spend under ‘Other’ relate to visiting museums and ancient sites all around the country. Particularly expensive cultural trips were those of Rome, Naples, Pompeii and Herculaneum.

The losers in Italy: Travel. We have been over budget by €420

The highest spend under this category were the ferries we took to the Aeolian Islands and fuel.

Italy is the second country in Europe with highest fuel prices, mainly due to taxation. The cheapest diesel we found was €1.38/litre but we have actually seen prices up to €1.67/litre. We are very proud we have kept our average price at €1.40/litre, but we struggled, though.

As usual, we provide a comparison of the costs per day for every country we have been so far. UK is still the winner, followed of course, by Italy.

SM