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Italy 🇮🇹

backpacking Europe Italy 🇮🇹Walk Roman ruins and Dolomite loops, then eat lunch standing at the bar.

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Backpacking Italy in 2027

A complete guide including when and where to go, costs, transport, itineraries, and practical travel advice.
A first look at the country

Backpacking Italy
By Johan Kruseman 🇳🇱 | Updated October 18, 2026

By 7:30 a.m. the espresso counter in any Italian town bar is three deep, and almost nobody sits. A caffè drunk standing at the banco costs around €1.20 to €1.50 in most of the country, while the same cup at a table on a famous piazza can cost three or four times that. I still remember my first one in a Naples bar near the station: thick as syrup, scalding, gone in two swallows while the barista was already knocking out the next puck.
Italy earns its reputation in a few specific places. Rome lets you walk from a 2,000-year-old temple to a Baroque fountain in five minutes. The Dolomites put jagged limestone walls right above your hut bunk. The food changes every hundred kilometers and is best at lunch in an ordinary working trattoria. Skip the Leaning Tower climb unless you are already in Pisa, since it is a short photo stop for a long detour. The challenges are plain: Florence, Venice and the Cinque Terre are packed from June to August, pickpockets work Rome’s metro and buses, rail strikes happen, and city beds are expensive.
Compared with France, the country is louder, less orderly and better value at the table. Compared with Switzerland, it costs far less for similar Alpine scenery. It suits travelers who plan their days around meals, ruins and slow train rides. If you want rock-bottom prices or empty wilderness, look east to the Balkans instead.

👉 Get the 📖 Travel Guide of Italy

Tuscany (Florence, Siena, Pisa)

Backpacking Italy for the first time almost always runs through Florence, and it should: the Uffizi and the Duomo climb justify two full days, even though the streets between them are packed with tour groups from April to October. Frecciarossa trains reach Florence from Rome in about 1 hour 30 minutes. Pisa’s tower is a two-hour stop on the way to somewhere else. Spend that night in Siena, an hour by bus from Florence, where the evening stroll around the sloping Piazza del Campo belongs to locals. It suits art-focused first-timers.

Venice and the Veneto (Venice, Verona, Padua)

Venice is worth the crowds only if you sleep there. Day-trippers thin out after 6 p.m., and the back canals of Cannaregio and Castello go quiet enough to hear oars knocking. Fast trains reach Venezia Santa Lucia from Rome in about 4 hours and from Milan in roughly 2 hours 30 minutes. Verona, an hour west, has a Roman arena still used for opera and a lively student bar scene around Piazza delle Erbe. Skip Juliet’s balcony, a twentieth-century addition. Padua’s Scrovegni Chapel frescoes deserve the half day instead.

Naples and the Amalfi Coast (Naples, Pompeii, Positano)

Naples is loud, dense and scooter-choked, and it is the best place to eat in southern Italy; most travelers give it one rushed day when it deserves three. It sits 1 hour 10 minutes from Rome by fast train. The Circumvesuviana commuter line reaches Pompeii in about 40 minutes; plan a full day for the ruins. The Amalfi Coast is lovely but punishing in July and August, when buses fill and Positano turns into a queue. Go in May or late September, and sleep in Sorrento or Salerno.

Sicily (Palermo, Catania, Mount Etna)

Sicily asks for more effort and gives the most back. Flights from Rome land in Palermo or Catania in about 1 hour 10 minutes; once there, intercity buses beat the slow trains, and a car makes the hill towns of the interior realistic. Palermo’s Ballarò market and its street food (panelle, arancine, sfincione) are enough for three days alone. Catania is the base for guided treks on Mount Etna, and Ortigia in Syracuse makes a walkable finale. It suits travelers who handle loose schedules and 35°C summers.

The Dolomites (Bolzano, Val Gardena, Cortina d’Ampezzo)

Up here the signs switch to German, lunch means dumplings, and the mountains rise in pale limestone walls straight out of green meadows. Trains reach Bolzano from Verona in about 1 hour 30 minutes, then regional buses climb into Val Gardena and Val di Funes. Cable cars cut out the worst ascents, and mountain huts called rifugi let you link several days on foot without technical gear. Lago di Braies in August is a parking-lot crush unless you arrive at dawn. Go from late June to mid-September.
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Why go?What makes this country worth the trip

Architecture

Few countries let you walk through two and a half thousand years of building in an afternoon, and Italy … read more 👉
Few countries let you walk through two and a half thousand years of building in an afternoon, and Italy does it without fuss. In Rome, the Pantheon’s unreinforced concrete dome, still the largest of its kind after nearly 1,900 years, stands a few minutes from Bernini’s Baroque fountains. Florence has Brunelleschi’s brick dome, Venice rests on millions of wooden piles, Lecce carved whole church facades from soft golden limestone, and Alberobello’s trulli wear conical stone roofs. Skip the Vatican Museums at midday: you shuffle through the corridors in a slow crowd and barely see the ceilings. I’d spend that day in Ravenna instead, where the 5th and 6th century Byzantine mosaics in San Vitale and the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia glow in near silence.

Food

Italian food is really twenty regional cuisines that barely agree with each other, which is why eating … read more 👉
Italian food is really twenty regional cuisines that barely agree with each other, which is why eating in Italy never gets repetitive. Carbonara and cacio e pepe belong to Rome, tagliatelle al ragù to Bologna, pesto to Liguria, arancini and cannoli to Sicily, and ordering a dish outside its home region usually gets you a weaker version. Restaurants with multilingual photo menus and a host waving you in near a major sight are not worth your time; walk two streets away and look for a short handwritten menu. Lunch is the smart meal, when many trattorias serve a fixed menu at a fraction of dinner prices. The coperto, a cover charge of €1.50 to €3 per person, is legal and normal. In Milan and Turin, an evening aperitivo drink often comes with a spread of snacks.

Scenery

Italy packs volcanoes, glacial lakes, limestone peaks and two long coastlines into a country you can … read more 👉
Italy packs volcanoes, glacial lakes, limestone peaks and two long coastlines into a country you can cross by train in a day, so the landscape changes faster than almost anywhere in Europe. The Val d’Orcia in southern Tuscany delivers the cypress-lined hills you have seen on postcards, and it looks best at sunrise in May, when the wheat is green and mist sits in the hollows. Lake Como is beautiful but jammed in August, and Bellagio becomes a slow-moving queue; nearby Lake Orta gives you a similar shoreline and an island monastery with a fraction of the people. For something wilder, Stromboli throws up small eruptions several times an hour, and watching them glow orange after dark from a boat or a guided hike is a sight that has no equal on the mainland.

Mountains

Hiking in Italy is about huts as much as peaks. The Dolomites run a dense network of rifugi, staffed … read more 👉
Hiking in Italy is about huts as much as peaks. The Dolomites run a dense network of rifugi, staffed mountain huts serving hot dinners, wine and strudel at 2,000 meters and more, so you can walk for a week carrying only a daypack’s worth of gear. Alta Via 1, roughly 120 km from Lago di Braies to near Belluno, is the classic hut-to-hut route and takes most people eight to eleven days. Gran Paradiso National Park in the northwest is quieter, with ibex grazing right beside the trails. On Etna, the summit craters require an authorized guide, and going up with one is the only sensible way. The season runs from late June to mid-September. Skip the cable-car viewpoints at midday in August, when the summit terraces fill with crowds; start walking early instead.

People

Conversation in Italy is loud, fast and full of gestures, and what sounds like an argument at the next … read more 👉
Conversation in Italy is loud, fast and full of gestures, and what sounds like an argument at the next table is often two friends agreeing about football. People here are warm once a small courtesy has been exchanged: a buongiorno when you enter a shop, a buonasera from mid-afternoon on, and suddenly the shopkeeper is recommending which cheese to pair with your bread. Expect opinions, freely given, about your order, your route and your shoes. English is common among younger people in the north and thinner in the rural south, where twenty words of Italian change every interaction. The busiest historic centers make for brisk, transactional exchanges, so don’t judge the country by them. Join the evening passeggiata in a small town instead, grab a bench on the main street, and let the neighbors’ curiosity do the rest.

Backpackers

The backpacker scene in Italy is concentrated rather than everywhere, and it sits right where the classic … read more 👉
The backpacker scene in Italy is concentrated rather than everywhere, and it sits right where the classic rail route runs. Florence and Rome have the biggest cluster of social hostels, many with rooftop bars, walking tours and communal dinners where you will find travel partners for the next leg. The streets around Rome’s Termini station hold most of the big hostels: convenient, scruffy after dark, and fine if you watch your bag. La Spezia is the practical hostel hub for the Cinque Terre, since beds in the five villages are scarce. Naples has a smaller, younger crowd that loves the city’s chaos. If dorm life starts to wear thin, WWOOF Italia connects you with organic farms that trade meals and a bed for a few hours of daily work, often in Tuscany or Sicily.

Beach life

Beach life in Italy runs on the stabilimento: rows of rented umbrellas and loungers, a bar, a lifeguard … read more 👉
Beach life in Italy runs on the stabilimento: rows of rented umbrellas and loungers, a bar, a lifeguard and a rhythm of lunch, nap and swim that locals follow religiously. Free public stretches, the spiaggia libera, exist almost everywhere, though they are often the narrower patches. For clear water, Sardinia wins easily; Cala Goloritzé on the east coast, reached by a hike of about an hour, has turquoise shallows and a limestone pinnacle, and the snorkeling around the island’s granite coves is excellent. Salento, in the heel of Puglia, combines clean sea with lively summer nightlife in Gallipoli. Rimini suits clubbers and families, not swimmers wanting clear water. Avoid the week around Ferragosto in mid-August, when every beach is packed, and aim for June or September weekdays.

Uniqueness

Italy is one of the most visited countries on earth, yet whole regions see almost no foreigners. Molise … read more 👉
Italy is one of the most visited countries on earth, yet whole regions see almost no foreigners. Molise is so overlooked that Italians joke it doesn’t exist, and its stone villages and transhumance trails feel decades removed from Florence. The interior of Sardinia, the Barbagia, keeps its own language, shepherd traditions and murals in Orgosolo, a world away from the yachts on the coast. Calabria’s Aspromonte mountains drop almost straight to the sea and have few marked trails. Inland Basilicata and the tiny island of Ventotene, off Lazio, stay quiet even in August. Chasing remote corners in the Alps is not worth your time, since nearly every valley there is developed; head south and inland instead. Learn basic Italian before you go, because English thins out fast in these places.

⭐ HighlightsHighlights of Italy

  • Roman Forum and Palatine Hill: Arrive at opening and you walk the Via Sacra over the same basalt paving that Roman senators crossed, worn into grooves by cart wheels, while green parakeets screech from the umbrella pines on the Palatine above. To an untrained eye it is rubble, so read a little first; once you can tell the Curia from the Temple of Vesta, the place turns into one of the best mornings in Italy. By noon a pale, fine dust coats your shoes.
  • Tre Cime di Lavaredo: Three limestone towers rise straight out of a scree basin, and the roughly 10 km loop around them is an easy, mostly level walk at around 2,400 meters. Marmots whistle from the boulders, the air turns sharp the moment a cloud covers the sun, and the north faces glow orange in the late afternoon from the terrace of Rifugio Locatelli.
  • Pompeii: Vesuvius stays in view the whole time, which makes the streets feel uncomfortably recent. Wheel ruts cut deep into the paving, raised stepping stones let pedestrians cross above the
… read more 👉
  • Roman Forum and Palatine Hill: Arrive at opening and you walk the Via Sacra over the same basalt paving that Roman senators crossed, worn into grooves by cart wheels, while green parakeets screech from the umbrella pines on the Palatine above. To an untrained eye it is rubble, so read a little first; once you can tell the Curia from the Temple of Vesta, the place turns into one of the best mornings in Italy. By noon a pale, fine dust coats your shoes.
  • Tre Cime di Lavaredo: Three limestone towers rise straight out of a scree basin, and the roughly 10 km loop around them is an easy, mostly level walk at around 2,400 meters. Marmots whistle from the boulders, the air turns sharp the moment a cloud covers the sun, and the north faces glow orange in the late afternoon from the terrace of Rifugio Locatelli.
  • Pompeii: Vesuvius stays in view the whole time, which makes the streets feel uncomfortably recent. Wheel ruts cut deep into the paving, raised stepping stones let pedestrians cross above the sewage, and the plaster casts of victims in the Garden of the Fugitives silence even school groups. The stone throws heat back at you by midday, so carry two liters of water.
  • Matera’s Sassi: Two ravines of cave houses and rock-cut churches climb over each other in Basilicata, inhabited for thousands of years and emptied by the government in the 1950s before their revival. Step inside a cave church and the temperature drops several degrees, with a damp, chalky smell. After dark, lamps come on across the facing slope and the whole gorge looks like a nativity scene.
  • Venice at dawn: Before 8 a.m. the city belongs to delivery boats loaded with crates of vegetables and beer, and to the slap of water against stone steps. Cannaregio’s canals smell of salt and low-tide mud, and you can stand alone on bridges that are shoulder to shoulder by ten o’clock.
Off the map, the high plateau of Campo Imperatore in Abruzzo, the abandoned hill town of Craco in Basilicata and the tiny Aeolian island of Filicudi all justify the detour, and I’d pick Campo Imperatore first for its wide, empty grassland under the Gran Sasso.
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🧭 RoutesPlanning a route that makes sense

The 7-Day Tuscany Route


One region, two bases, and enough slack to linger over coffee in a medieval square. Renaissance masterpieces share the week with hill towns of towers and city walls you can cycle.
  • Botticelli and Michelangelo in Florence
  • A day split between Pisa’s Leaning Tower and Lucca’s walls
  • Siena’s shell-shaped Piazza del Campo
  • The towers of San Gimignano

👉 explore this 7-day route

The 14-Day Classic Italy Route


The famous line from the Venetian lagoon down to the Amalfi cliffs, linked by fast trains. It mixes big-name art, Roman stone, Neapolitan pizza and a hike high above the sea.
  • The Doge’s Palace in Venice
  • The Vatican and the Borghese Gallery in Rome
  • Pompeii and the Naples museum that holds its treasures
  • The Path of the Gods down to Positano

👉 explore this 14-day route

The 21-Day Grand Italy Route


Three weeks from the Alps to the deep south, swapping canals for limestone peaks and cliff villages for cave houses. It goes deeper into each region and adds places most first trips skip. … read more 👉

The 7-Day Tuscany Route


One region, two bases, and enough slack to linger over coffee in a medieval square. Renaissance masterpieces share the week with hill towns of towers and city walls you can cycle.
  • Botticelli and Michelangelo in Florence
  • A day split between Pisa’s Leaning Tower and Lucca’s walls
  • Siena’s shell-shaped Piazza del Campo
  • The towers of San Gimignano

👉 explore this 7-day route

The 14-Day Classic Italy Route


The famous line from the Venetian lagoon down to the Amalfi cliffs, linked by fast trains. It mixes big-name art, Roman stone, Neapolitan pizza and a hike high above the sea.
  • The Doge’s Palace in Venice
  • The Vatican and the Borghese Gallery in Rome
  • Pompeii and the Naples museum that holds its treasures
  • The Path of the Gods down to Positano

👉 explore this 14-day route

The 21-Day Grand Italy Route


Three weeks from the Alps to the deep south, swapping canals for limestone peaks and cliff villages for cave houses. It goes deeper into each region and adds places most first trips skip.
  • The loop around the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the Dolomites
  • Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna
  • The cliff trail between Cinque Terre villages
  • The Sassi cave districts of Matera

👉 explore this 21-day route

🌤️ When to go?When to go for the best experience

The best months for backpacking Italy are late May, June and September, when days are warm, the sea is swimmable and hostel beds cost noticeably less than in July and August.
Region matters more than the calendar suggests. Sicily, Puglia and Sardinia stay beach-warm into October, while the Dolomites run on a separate clock: hiking huts open from roughly mid-June to late September, and ski season covers December to April.
  • Spring shoulder (March to May): Highs climb from about 15°C to 25°C, with showers that taper off by May. Crowds are moderate except around Easter and the April 25 and May 1 holidays, when Italians travel too and prices jump. Coastal ferries and seasonal guesthouses reopen around Easter. The sea stays too cold for most swimmers until late May.
  • Summer peak (June to August): Hot and mostly dry, with inland cities like Florence and Rome often at 32 to 35°C by July. Beaches, islands and the Amalfi Coast are packed, and rooms there can double in price compared with spring. Many city businesses close for a week or two around Ferragosto (August 15). Mountains and islands are at their best.
  • Autumn shoulder (September to October): The sea is at its warmest in September, heat eases, and grape and truffle season starts. Coastal resorts begin closing from late October, and rain picks up as the month goes on.
  • Winter low season (November to February): Cool and damp, with fog in the Po Valley and mild sun in Sicily. Museums are quieter, dorm beds cheapest, and much of the coast is shut. Christmas week and Venice Carnival are the exceptions, with high-season prices.
I’d book beds two to three months ahead for Easter week and anything coastal in July or August, and in spring or autumn I’d pack a light rain shell rather than an umbrella, which is useless on windy ferry decks.

source: climatestotravel.comJANJanuary: fair for travelingFEBFebruary: fair for travelingMARMarch: good for travelingAPRApril: good for travelingMAYMay: highly recommended for travelingJUNJune: excellent for travelingJULJuly: good for travelingAUGAugust: good for travelingSEPSeptember: excellent for travelingOCTOctober: highly recommended for travelingNOVNovember: fair for travelingDECDecember: fair for traveling
!2021-08-09 07.36.51

💰 Costs (as of 2026)How expensive it really is

Backpacking Italy on a budget costs about €60 to 95 a day if you sleep in dorms, eat mostly from supermarkets and bakeries, and travel on regional trains.
CategoryBudget RangeLocal Reality
Dorm accommodation€25 to 55 per nightA dorm bed in Rome usually costs €30 to 50, in Florence €35 to 55, and in Naples €20 to 32. Venice beds are cheaper on the mainland in Mestre (€28 to 45) than on the islands. The city tourist tax is charged on top, at about €2 to 6 per person per night and paid in cash at check-in. Booking direct with the hostel and staying midweek can save €5 to 10 a night. Beds cost about the same as in France and well under Switzerland, where €45 to 70 is normal.
Meals€15 to 30 per dayA supermarket run at Coop, Conad or Lidl costs €8 to 12 for bread, cheese, tomatoes and fruit for two meals. A slice of pizza al taglio in Rome costs €3 to 5, a margherita in Naples €4 to 7, and a panino or arancino €3 to 6. Espresso drunk standing at the bar costs €1.20 to 1.50. Sit-down trattorias charge a cover fee (coperto) of €2 to 4 per person. Food prices sit close to France and below Austria.
Local transport€5 to 25 per dayRegional trains have fixed fares and never get pricier at the last
… read more 👉
Backpacking Italy on a budget costs about €60 to 95 a day if you sleep in dorms, eat mostly from supermarkets and bakeries, and travel on regional trains.
CategoryBudget RangeLocal Reality
Dorm accommodation€25 to 55 per nightA dorm bed in Rome usually costs €30 to 50, in Florence €35 to 55, and in Naples €20 to 32. Venice beds are cheaper on the mainland in Mestre (€28 to 45) than on the islands. The city tourist tax is charged on top, at about €2 to 6 per person per night and paid in cash at check-in. Booking direct with the hostel and staying midweek can save €5 to 10 a night. Beds cost about the same as in France and well under Switzerland, where €45 to 70 is normal.
Meals€15 to 30 per dayA supermarket run at Coop, Conad or Lidl costs €8 to 12 for bread, cheese, tomatoes and fruit for two meals. A slice of pizza al taglio in Rome costs €3 to 5, a margherita in Naples €4 to 7, and a panino or arancino €3 to 6. Espresso drunk standing at the bar costs €1.20 to 1.50. Sit-down trattorias charge a cover fee (coperto) of €2 to 4 per person. Food prices sit close to France and below Austria.
Local transport€5 to 25 per dayRegional trains have fixed fares and never get pricier at the last minute: Florence to Pisa is about €9, Rome to Naples €13 to 14. FlixBus seats between big cities often cost €8 to 20. A single metro or bus ticket costs €1.50 in Rome and €2.20 in Milan. If you book Frecciarossa or Italo high-speed trains early, Rome to Florence can drop to €20 to 30.
Activities€0 to 30 per dayBig-name sights cost the most. Standard entry to the Colosseum is €18 and to the Uffizi up to €25 in high season. On day trips, Venice charges a €5 to 10 access fee on peak days. State museums are free on the first Sunday of each month. I’d put money into one or two headline sights in each city and spend the other days on free churches, piazzas and coastal walks.
Miscellaneous€5 to 10 per dayPublic toilets cost €1 to 1.50, gelato €3 to 4 a cup, and a bottle of water at a station kiosk €1.50 to 2. Bring a refillable bottle and fill it for free at the drinking fountains in Rome. Laundromats charge €4 to 6 a wash.
Total Daily Budget€60 to 95 per dayNaples and Puglia sit at the low end, around €60 to 70. Venice, Florence and the Amalfi Coast push toward €90 to 95. Overall the country costs about the same as France, noticeably less than Switzerland, and more than Slovenia or inland Croatia.
⚠️ Prices can change and everyone travels differently, so take this as a rough guide. Hope it helps you plan your adventure!

✈️ The backpacker research shortcutItaly Travel Guide

An offline-friendly backpacking guide with optimized travel routes, ranked highlights, transport advice, and the best areas to stay.
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The digital guide (523 pages) contains:
✅ 142 highlights, ranked by travel appeal
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✅ How to get around
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✅ Month by month travel advice
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🗺️ Go to the right places, skip the overrated ones
✅ Honest pros & cons of destinations
✅ Top hikes, parks & viewpoints
✅ Lesser-known places most travelers miss
✅ Clear “worth it vs skip it” guidance

🛏️ Travel smoothly without rookie mistakes
✅ Best areas to stay
✅ Transport systems explained simply
✅ Common scams & safety advice
✅ SIM cards, money & practical tips

🌍 Understand the country, not just visit it
✅ Culture & traditions
✅ 52 Essential phrases & customs
✅ Festivals worth planning around
✅ Traveler-friendly historical context
✅ Insights that make places more meaningful

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🛏️ Where to stay?Areas travelers tend to prefer

Italy has hostels and budget guesthouses in every major city, with dorm beds running roughly €25 to €50 a night and spiking in summer and around big events. In Rome, Esquilino near Termini station has the most cheap beds and the best transport links but feels scruffy after dark, while Trastevere puts you among the best nightlife at higher prices and with late-night noise. In Florence, San Lorenzo and Santa Maria Novella keep you within a 15-minute walk of the Duomo, and in Venice, staying on the mainland in Mestre roughly halves the price but means a 10 to 15 minute train or bus ride into the … read more 👉
Italy has hostels and budget guesthouses in every major city, with dorm beds running roughly €25 to €50 a night and spiking in summer and around big events. In Rome, Esquilino near Termini station has the most cheap beds and the best transport links but feels scruffy after dark, while Trastevere puts you among the best nightlife at higher prices and with late-night noise. In Florence, San Lorenzo and Santa Maria Novella keep you within a 15-minute walk of the Duomo, and in Venice, staying on the mainland in Mestre roughly halves the price but means a 10 to 15 minute train or bus ride into the historic center.

If you enjoy meeting fellow travelers, consider choosing hostels with high ratings for atmosphere. On the other hand, if you prefer having your own space, a hotel might be a better option.

Best hostels in Italy


Best quality hotels in Italy

🚌 Getting aroundPublic transport and other ways to get around

Trains are how most backpackers get around Italy, because the rail network links nearly every city you’ll want to see and the high-speed lines beat flying on almost every domestic route. Regional trains then fill in the small towns at fixed, cheap prices. Buses cover the gaps, and ferries handle the islands.
  • High-speed trains (Frecciarossa and Italo): Rome to Florence takes about 1.5 hours and Rome to Milan about 3 hours. Fares run €20 to 40 if you book 2 to 4 weeks ahead and €50 to 95 on the day.
… read more 👉
Trains are how most backpackers get around Italy, because the rail network links nearly every city you’ll want to see and the high-speed lines beat flying on almost every domestic route. Regional trains then fill in the small towns at fixed, cheap prices. Buses cover the gaps, and ferries handle the islands.
  • High-speed trains (Frecciarossa and Italo): Rome to Florence takes about 1.5 hours and Rome to Milan about 3 hours. Fares run €20 to 40 if you book 2 to 4 weeks ahead and €50 to 95 on the day. The two operators compete on the same main lines, so check both apps (Trenitalia and Italo) before paying. Seats are assigned, there’s Wi-Fi, and the trains are clean. For long hops between major cities, this is the best use of your money in the country.
  • Regional trains (Regionale): These are slow and unglamorous, and they are often the smartest choice. Florence to Pisa takes about 1 hour for around €9, and Naples to Salerno costs around €5. Prices are fixed, so there’s no advantage to booking early. If you buy a paper ticket, validate it in the green or white machine on the platform before boarding. Inspectors fine you on the spot, usually €50 or more. Expect crowds and no air conditioning on some older stock in summer.
  • Long-distance buses (FlixBus, Itabus, MarinoBus): Fares are €5 to 25 on routes like Rome to Florence (about 3 to 3.5 hours) or Rome to Bari (about 5 to 6 hours). Book in the app. Buses only make sense when the train is sold out or expensive, or when you’re heading to the south, where rail links thin out. Overnight buses save a night’s accommodation, but you’ll arrive wrecked.
  • Ferries: Naples to Capri takes 40 to 50 minutes by fast boat for €22 to 30. Overnight crossings from Civitavecchia or Livorno to Sardinia cost €40 to 90 for a deck seat. Book summer island crossings early, because August sells out.
  • Rental car: Expect €30 to 70 a day plus fuel at around €1.80 a liter. A car is worth it for rural Tuscany, inland Sicily and Puglia’s countryside, and a waste of money in any city. Many historic centers have ZTL zones, restricted traffic areas filmed by cameras. Fines arrive by mail months later.
I’d use regional trains for anything under 2 hours and save high-speed tickets for the long jumps, booked a few weeks out. Plan the trip as a north-to-south line rather than zigzagging, so every ticket moves you forward.
Rome’s main airport in Italy is Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino (FCO), about 30 km (19 miles) southwest of the center, and the cheapest reliable way in is an airport bus to Termini station for around €6 to €7.
  • Leonardo Express train (32 minutes, €14) runs nonstop from the airport station to Termini every 15 to 30 minutes from about 6:00 to 23:30, and you can buy tickets at the station machines or in the Trenitalia app.
  • FL1 regional train (30 to 50 minutes, €8) stops at Trastevere, Ostiense and Tiburtina instead of Termini, which suits you if your bed is south of the river, and paper tickets must be validated before boarding.
  • Airport shuttle buses (50 to 70 minutes depending on traffic, €6 to €7) leave from the bus area outside Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 for Termini, with tickets sold online, at kiosks or on board.
  • Cotral night bus (about 60 minutes, €5 to €7) covers the hours when the trains have stopped, running a handful of departures through the night to Tiburtina and Termini.
  • Taxi (40 to 60 minutes, €55 fixed fare) applies to any address inside the Aurelian Walls, so use only the white licensed cabs at the official rank and confirm the fixed fare before you get in.
  • Ride-hailing (40 to 60 minutes, €60 to €90) is limited to premium Uber cars in Rome, though the FreeNow app lets you book a regular licensed taxi at the fixed rate.
If you land after the last Leonardo Express, splitting the €55 fixed taxi fare with another traveler from your flight usually beats waiting for a night bus and walking around Termini at 2 a.m.
⚠️ Prices and routes can change, so take this as a rough guide and ask for local advice when you arrive.
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🔒 Safety (risk Level: low)What first-time visitors should know

Safety for solo travelers, including women and LGBTQ+ individuals
Italy is a safe country for solo travelers, with low rates of violent crime, and the main risk is pickpocketing on crowded buses, on the Rome metro, around Termini station and at major sights in Rome, Florence, Venice and Naples. Solo women may face catcalling or persistent flirting, especially in the south, but serious harassment is uncommon, and walking firmly away usually ends it. LGBTQ+ travelers will find open, welcoming scenes in Milan, Rome and Bologna, and same-sex civil unions are legally recognized, though public affection draws more stares in small towns and the rural south. Keep your phone and wallet zipped away in busy places, use official taxis at night, and dial 112 in any emergency.


Full official government travel advisory (live updates)
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✈️ VisaVisa requirements for Italy

Citizens of the EU and EEA can enter Italy freely, while travelers from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries can visit visa-free for up to 90 days within any 180-day period under the Schengen rules, with their biometric data recorded at the border by the EU Entry/Exit System. Visa-exempt travelers will also need an ETIAS travel authorization once it launches, applied for online before departure. Nationals who do need a Schengen visa must apply at the Italian embassy, consulate or its official visa center in their country of residence, using the requirements listed on Italy’s official visa portal.

source: vistoperitalia.esteri.it
⚠️ Visa requirements can change over time, so always check the latest visa requirements with the official embassy or government website before you travel.

🎒 What to pack?Packing essentials for the trip

Packing for Italy means planning for heat, hills and church dress codes all in the same trip. Summers regularly push past 35°C (95°F) in Rome, Florence and the south, so lightweight, breathable clothes matter, while the Alps and Dolomites can turn cold even in July and winters in the north are damp and chilly. Cobblestones, steep hill towns and long days on foot are hard on cheap shoes, so bring comfortable footwear with real grip. Many churches, including St. Peter’s, refuse entry if your shoulders or knees are uncovered, so keep something light to cover up in your daypack. Travel light, because you’ll be hauling your bag up train steps and across uneven streets far more than you expect.

Apart from this country specific advice, I have also crafted a general packing list that should help on any trip. authorOver the years, I've learned the importance of packing minimally. It's so much easier to jump on the back of a truck or squeeze yourself into the last spot of a minibus without that supersized backpack. If you're headed to a warm destination, leave your winter jacket at home; for colder regions, opt for thin thermal underlayers. Instead of packing your entire wardrobe, bring just three sets of clothes, as laundry facilities are available everywhere.

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🙋 FAQCommon questions before visiting

Trip Planning

Planning a backpacking route through Italy can be tricky — you need to balance must-see places, travel times, budget, and how long to stay in each destination. Our free personalized Italy itinerary planner creates a route based on your travel style, trip duration, and interests, so you can spend less time researching and more time exploring.



Personal tip: I normally search on good rating for atmosphere (for meeting people) and location (for easy exploring). Cleanliness as a bonus.


Travel Essentials

No vaccinations are required to enter Italy, but you should be up to date on routine vaccines such as measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), tetanus-diphtheria and your seasonal flu or COVID-19 shots. Hepatitis A and B are commonly recommended for most travelers, and tick-borne encephalitis vaccination is worth considering if you plan to hike or camp in forested areas of the northeast, such as Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino. Check with a travel clinic 4 to 6 weeks before departure for advice based on your health and itinerary.


vaccination requirements
When I first started traveling, I often spent part of my first day in a new country hunting for a local SIM card. While this can still be slightly cheaper, it also takes time and planning.

These days, it's much simpler to install an eSIM before leaving home. Once you arrive in Italy, you can activate it immediately and have mobile data from the moment you land — which is especially useful for ordering transport or navigating away from busy airports.

There are many providers nowadays, and price differences are usually small. I personally go with Holafly, as it offers excellent network coverage throughout the country and strong global coverage, so you can manage multiple countries from a single app.


HolaFly eSim

Culture & Customs

Cover your shoulders and knees when visiting churches in Italy, and keep your voice low inside, since many still hold daily services. Do dress a notch smarter than you would at home, especially at dinner, and do eat on local time: lunch around 1 pm and dinner from 8 pm onward, so restaurants opening at 7 pm are often the tourist ones. Don’t sit or eat on monuments, wade into fountains or picnic on the Spanish Steps, as cities like Rome, Venice and Florence fine you for it. Don’t expect to customize dishes heavily, ask for parmesan on seafood pasta or order a cappuccino after a meal; Italians drink milky coffee in the morning and an espresso after eating, usually standing at the bar, which also costs less than sitting. Same-sex couples are generally accepted in big cities, though discretion is wise in conservative rural areas, and women should expect occasional unwanted attention that is best met with confident indifference.
Trying traditional food is always a great way to experience the culture. Here are some must-try dishes for Italy.
  1. Pizza Napoletana: A soft, blistered crust baked for about 90 seconds in a wood-fired oven, topped simply with tomato, mozzarella and basil for a margherita. Naples treats it as a craft, and the art of the Neapolitan pizzaiolo is on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage.
  2. Spaghetti alla Carbonara: Rome’s signature pasta of egg yolk, pecorino romano, black pepper and crispy guanciale (cured pork cheek). No cream, ever, which Romans will remind you of.
  3. Cacio e Pepe: Another Roman classic, made from pasta, pecorino and black pepper emulsified into a glossy sauce. With so few ingredients, it shows quickly whether a kitchen knows what it’s doing.
  4. Tagliatelle al Ragù: Bologna’s slow-cooked meat sauce served on fresh egg pasta. It’s the real dish behind the “spaghetti bolognese” you won’t find on menus in Bologna.
  5. Risotto alla Milanese: Creamy risotto colored gold with saffron and enriched with butter and parmesan, the defining dish of Milan and the rice-growing north.
  6. Arancini: Sicily’s fried rice balls, stuffed with ragù and peas or ham and mozzarella. They’re cheap, filling street food, around €2 to 4 each.
  7. Gelato: Denser and less airy than ice cream, served slightly warmer so flavors hit harder. Look for muted colors and flavors stored in covered metal tins, a sign it’s made on site.
  8. Tiramisù: Espresso-soaked ladyfingers layered with mascarpone cream and cocoa, claimed by the Veneto region and eaten everywhere.
Tap water in Italy is safe to drink and strictly monitored, and while many locals still buy mineral water out of habit or taste, plenty drink from the tap and from public fountains. Tourists can drink it without worry, and Rome alone has over 2,000 free drinking fountains called “nasoni,” so a refillable bottle saves you money. Bottled water is only advised where a tap or fountain is marked “acqua non potabile,” and in restaurants you can ask for tap water (“acqua del rubinetto”) instead of paying for a bottle.
The main language in Italy is Italian. Backpacking is way more rewarding if you know a bit of the local language, so I'd suggest brushing up on the basics just in case your Italian skills have become a bit rusty.

Want to understand locals better?
The complete Travel Guide for Italy includes 52 essential words and phrases — greetings, thank-yous, ordering food, transport, numbers, and common local expressions you'll actually hear.

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In Rome, Florence, Venice and other tourist hubs in Italy, you can get by in English at hotels, ticket offices and most restaurants, though menus and signs outside the center are often Italian only. Younger Italians and hostel staff usually speak decent English. In rural areas, small southern towns and family-run trattorias, expect little or none. Spanish or French speakers will decode a surprising amount of Italian, and an offline Italian pack in Google Translate plus a handful of phrases like “per favore,” “grazie” and “il conto” goes a long way.

Money & Payments

The local currency of Italy is EUR (€).
Italy uses the euro, and ATMs (called “Bancomat”) are easy to find in every city and most villages, though some remote hill towns have only one. Use machines attached to real banks such as Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit or BNL, which often charge no local fee or around €2 to 5, and avoid standalone Euronet machines that charge high fees and push poor exchange rates. Always decline the offer to be charged in your home currency, at both ATMs and card terminals, because the conversion rate is worse than your bank’s. Cards, including contactless and phone payments, are accepted almost everywhere in cities, but small cafés, market stalls, rural trattorias and some guesthouses still prefer cash, and city tourist taxes are often paid in cash on arrival. Bring euros or simply withdraw them on arrival rather than carrying US dollars, which are not accepted for everyday purchases. If you need to exchange cash, do it at a bank rather than airport or tourist-area kiosks, which charge steep commissions.
Tipping in Italy is not expected, because most restaurants already add a “coperto” (cover charge) of €1.50 to 4 per person, and some include a “servizio” (service charge) on the bill. If service was good and no service charge appears, leaving €1 to 2 per person or rounding up the total is a kind gesture, and 10% is generous for an excellent meal. At coffee bars, people sometimes leave small change, and taxi fares are usually rounded up to the nearest euro.

🧩 Nearby countriesOther countries to combine with Italy

📸 PhotosA visual impression of the trip

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Photographed by: Johan Kruseman

Observations and takeaways

Conquering some vertigo to reach that unique party place in the Dolomites

Conquering some vertigo to reach that unique party place in the Dolomites

Italy | Yet another average holiday: flight ticket bought for correct day but incorrect year 🙈, so jumped in my 🚗, to get to the dolomites in time, picked a mountain pass but there was a gas leak discovered in the village so the only road was closed for 3 hours, made it just in time to our starting point to hike the same evening to our first mountain but a...
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Venice without tourists

Venice without tourists

Italy | While backpacking Slovenia i found out that Venice was just around the corner. Though it was hard to leave the rocky mountains and turquoise blue rivers behind for a few days, Venice without cruise ships was something i could not let pass by. Check out how peaceful Venice can be...
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We 💚 feedbackKey takeaways from the trip

The reason to come is simple: in Italy, ordinary food at a lunch counter in a town you never planned to visit beats the best restaurants in most countries, and that pleasure repeats every single day. The drawback is crowding. In July and August the famous cities are hot, booked out and overrun, and the beaches fill with Italian families on their summer holidays. The strategic fix is to travel in May or from mid-September to October and spend at least half your nights outside Rome, Florence and Venice. Smaller places like Lecce, Bologna, Orvieto or Ortigia cost less, feel calmer, and give you cafés where the barista knows your order by the second morning.

✈️ When did I visit Italy?
Italy I have visited a couple of times: Rome already when I was still in high school, and I did a 7 day hike in the Dolomites in 2021. Since then, this guide is regularly updated based on feedback from locals and recent backpackers (last update: 18 October 2026)

✍️ Help improve this page!
The information on this page is based on my own backpacking experience in Italy, supplemented with up-to-date research and feedback from other travelers. Travel details can change, so if you notice anything outdated or incomplete, feel free to let me know.



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👋 Meet the founderWho’s Behind Take Your Backpack?

Johan, backpacker and founder of TakeYourBackpackHi, I’m Johan (Netherlands 🇳🇱), the creator of TakeYourBackpack. Over the past 3 decades, I’ve backpacked through 90+ countries across six continents, gaining extensive experience with independent travel, long-term trips, and overland routes.

This site is built on a combination of firsthand travel experience and carefully curated insights from other backpackers. Many guides are based on places I’ve personally visited, while others bring together tips, observations, and practical advice shared by trusted travelers I’ve met along the way.

The goal is to provide realistic, experience-driven guidance — not generic itineraries — so you can explore destinations with better context, clearer expectations, and more confidence.

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