How To Budget For A Month In Florence

We’ve just spent a full month in Florence over the winter enjoying everything this city has to offer, from incredible architecture to amazing meals to beautiful Renaissance art. We would never describe Florence, Italy as a low-cost destination but there are lots of ways to make your budget stretch, particularly if you are a slow traveler. 

We’ve got a few tips for planning your own budget for a month-long stay in Florence and then we’ll share what we actually spent this past February. All amounts are in USD.

Accommodation

Accommodation will always be the largest expense in a travel budget. There are two important factors to consider: type of accommodation and time of year. First you’ll need to decide on the type of accommodation that you would like. A hostel in Florence is, of course, the least expensive option with dorm beds at $20 to 45. However, they can be quite limiting in terms of personal space for a long-term stay. Hotels will be the most expensive with a double room in a mid-range hotel ranging from $120–220. Maid service might be pleasing but they typically will lack cooking facilities which can be a real drawback for a long-term stay. 

AirBnB is our usual choice for anything longer than a night or two; if you choose an entire apartment versus just a room, you’ll have lots of space to spread out in addition to your own kitchen facilities.

The time of year for your trip can have a huge impact on your accommodations budget, more so than any other line item. Florence sees a massive uplift in tourism as the summer months approach so timing of your trip is critical. We paid $1132  for a month in our one-bedroom apartment; a similar place would cost double to triple in July and August.

Utilities 

One line item that came up frequently in our research of Florence AirBnBs and in italy more generally was an extra charge for heating and electricity. We haven’t seen this in other European countries. Be sure to ask upfront whether utilities are included so that you can budget accordingly. We arranged that a final reading of the meter would take place at the end of our visit and we would pay the going rate for our utility usage.

Groceries 

We cooked most of our meals at home. We love cooking and eating healthy food and buying what’s in season locally so we were really happy with this approach. Of course, being in Italy we incorporated a lot of local flavours in our dishes. 

Dining out 

For us, one of the most exciting line items in any travel budget is dining out. Here your budget really depends on personal preference and how many restaurant experiences you want to have. A meal for two in Florence can be as luxurious and expensive as you want. If you are on a budget you can still have great meals like a typical fixed price lunch or dinner, which comes with two courses and wine for between $10 and $15, depending on the restaurant and time of day.

There are also many options for grab and go meals:

• Espresso and a pastry at a stand up bar: $2 to $3
• A slice of pizza: $3
• Lampredotto sandwich: $4 plus a glass of wine for another $1
• A huge schiacciata sandwich: $5

All these prices go up by an extra dollar or so in the tourist areas

Entertainment

This is another category where you can spend as much or as little as you want. In terms of budget options, you can tag onto one of the free tours — which still require a gratuity at the end — or for a truly free alternative you could download a free tour of Florence from the Rick Steves app.  You can also time your trip with some of the free days at the museums or other sights, typically the last Sunday of the month. 

Certainly many churches are free to visit although some of the more famous ones charge admission for special access, such as climbing up to the top of the Duomo. Of course, just walking around the city and taking in street life and the architecture is completely free. If you’re willing to spend, consider whether you want a private guided tour or prefer to join a large group tour. 

Transportation

Florence is quite small and extremely walkable. We had no need to take any public transit or cabs within the city; it always seemed like everything was just a 15 minute walk away. A ride on the public transit on a 90-minute ticket is about $1.50, which gives as many rides as you like within the 90 minutes.

Laundry

Here’s another cost that long term visitors to Florence may need to keep in mind. We’ve been traveling through Europe non stop for the past five months and Italy is the first country where our AirBnBs did not include a washing machine in the apartment or building. 

Data

Your costs to stay connected will vary depending on your approach and the amount of data you need. The cheapest is to simply rely on wifi in your accommodation, cafes and restaurants. That’s not always convenient so the next best if you have an unlocked phone is to buy a local SIM card which can be had for as little as $5 for 1GB of data. We use a global data provider called Flexiroam so we don’t need a new SIM card in each country. 

Fitness

With all the walking you will be doing around the city of Florence you may not feel inclined to step inside a gym. Since we are on the road full-time and lifting weights is important for our physical and mental well-being, we followed our usual practice of joining a local gym. The side benefit of establishing this as a part of our daily routine was the opportunity to befriend some locals and feel just a little bit integrated into the community. If you prefer to get your daily exercise in the open air, there is no need to spend a dime on this category; it really comes down to personal preference. Here’s more on how we stay in shape while on the road:

Insurance

We believe everyone should have some health insurance in place for their overseas travel, even if it’s just low-cost high-deductible policy that will cover you in a worst case event. In our case we have a combined travel and health insurance policy.

Storage

If you are a long-term traveler, you might have other fixed costs back at home to include in your budget for a month in Florence. For us, the one other cost is for our small 5×5 storage locker in Canada where we keep the mementos that we couldn’t bring on the road. 

Our Florence cost of living

Item	Budget
Accommodations: A spacious one-bedroom apartment in a central location. It was well located by the Arno river, situated in a peasant neighbourhood with lots of great restaurants and too many pastry shops.	$1,132
Utilities: Heating and electricity	$145
Groceries: Grocery shopping could definitely be done more cheaply as we bought high quality ingredients like good balsamic vinegar, olive oil, nice meats and cheeses and lots of produce.	$590
Dining Out: Given that Florence is a higher cost destination, we made the decision to focus on home cooking and made dining out into a treat. We dined out on a multi-course meal once a week and sampled plenty of the take away options. This is unlike our experience in Istanbul where we ate out at least once or twice per day.	$188
Entertainment: Admission for one into the Uffizi, the Boboli Gardens and the Medici Chapel. Enjoying the architecture and street life was free.	$34
Local Transportation: A bus trip to Fiesole, a lovely little community in the hills with a great view of Florence.	$6
Laundry: We paid $8 per load of laundry. This is not a wash and fold service but DIY in a laundry mat, which neither of us have done since our school days!	$40
Data: We grabbed a great deal on our Italy data package of 5GB data which we shared between us.	$4
Fitness: Two 1-month memberships at a local gym.	$165
Insurance: An essential for any travel. Our plan is a combination of health and travel insurance.	$97
Storage: Although we downsized 95% of our possessions, we still have a few personal effects in storage back in Canada.	$107
Total	$2,506

If you want to see more of our travels in Florence, you can take a look at our recent video which shares our tips for experiencing Florence like a local.  

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