Italy by the numbers

At the time of my trip, $1 = .747 euros. (oy vey)

Flight: $671 RT
Trains to JFK: $21
ATM fees: $12
Currency conversion fee (1%): $25

For the 5 weeks, I had a daily breakdown of expenditure on food, gelato, coffee, accommoation, transportation, and miscellaneous items. I’m obviously not going to transcribe the whole chart, but here are some things worth noting:

- My most expensive day was May 23: I spent 100 euros ($134) the day I went from Venice to Bologna to Rome. Half of the day’s expenses went toward train fare.
- The days I spent the least amount of money were the first and last days of the trip, which makes sense since they were only partial days spent in Italy.
- The most I spent on food in a day was 33 euros ($44) on June 6, when I stayed at the farmstay in Abruzzo NP. We ate like royalty at an Italian restaurant in town.
- I only spent 5.7 euros ($7.60) on food on June 3, the hellish day where I was trying to get across southern Italy by train/bus and nearly got stranded. I had mostly small snacks rather than actual meals.
- The price of gelato ranged from 1-5.6 euros ($1.35-7.50). I had it nearly every single day, spending a grand total of 64.5 euros ($86!). That’s pretty ridiculous, but they don’t make it like that in the US so I had to take advantage!
- Surprisingly I spent much less on coffee: 23 euros ($30). I only had it maybe 60% of the time, and it was usually really cheap. The most I spent on one was 2.5 euros ($3.35); not bad, considering that’s probably about average in the US. The average cup of coffee was probably 1.2 euros ($1.60).
- I spent 686 euros ($918) on accommodation. Ouch.
- I spent 371 euros ($497) on transportation while in Italy, excluding airfare.

The grand total? $3255 for 5 weeks in Italy. That’s not too shabby, considering it was a DIY trip. I tried not to eat extravagantly, but didn’t deprive myself of the daily coffee and gelato. So it was a good balance of being frugal, but not outrageously so, and taking advantage of all that Italy has to offer.

I also took 3463 photos during the trip and ended up keeping 1603 of them, a 46% save rate.