How To Travel In Italy On A Budget And Avoid The Crowds

by Ashley Price, contributing travel writer

Italy is a country with an abundance of iconic history, beauty, and

most importantly, comfort food.

With only a week, my roommate and I were able to experience Venice, Florence, Pisa,

and Rome on levels deeper than the typical tourist experience thanks to tips from friends

and about a million travel sites.

Here is what I learned from my time in each city that made our travels both less expensive

and more enjoyable.

Venice (Saint Lucia)

Venice lives up to all expectations on its beauty.
With the main canal running right down the middle of the city, the rustic buildings, and cobblestone
streets, the city looks like a painting.

That being said, Venice was certainly the most touristy of the cities we visited
as far as food and gelato quality is concerned.
We were there for essentially 24 hours (an evening into the afternoon of the following day)
and that was plenty of time.
We stayed at an Airbnb near the Jewish Ghetto which was a great location.
Everything is walking distance (especially since there are no cars on the island!)
We decided not to do a gondola ride just because they’re pretty pricey (80€)
and the timing didn’t work out for us since the city doesn’t wake up until 11am.

Sites to see:

• St. Mark’s Basilica - the basilica was closed when we visited, but normally it’s free to the public.
  It’s also situated in a very pretty plaza on the water. 
• The Bridge of Sighs - walking distance from the basilica. The most famous bridge in Venice.
  Get there early! It gets ridiculously crowded later on in the day.
  My roommate and I got there around 9am and it was empty, but when we returned at 11 on our way back to our Airbnb it was a zoo. 
• Jewish Ghetto - every city we visited had one
  .
  It was just neat to see the Jewish side of the country’s history. 

Food:

I think the best pizza I had on my entire trip was from Osteria Nono Risorto in Venice.
It was no more than 10€ for a whole pizza. I got the ricotta and spinach. I still think about it.

Florence:

Florence is a stunning mid-size city and stole our hearts almost immediately.
We spent about 2.5 days in the city: Sunday evening - Wednesday morning with a half day in Pisa.
This was enough time for us to see all of the main attractions the city had to offer.
We stayed at an Airbnb on the opposite side of the river from the Duomo,
and we appreciated it because it was quieter and it gave us a chance to see other less-touristy parts of the city.

Sites to see:

• Uffizi Museum - this museum is HUGE! My roommate and I aren’t huge art people, and we spent 2.5hrs and felt rushed. Buy tickets ahead of time online. It’s a small fee, but totally worth it because you get to skip the enormous ticket line. Check out the Firenze card to see if it's a better deal than buying each museum entrance ticket separately. 
• L’accademia Museum - where David is. It’s a small museum. We spent about half an hour. Buy a ticket ahead of time to this too. 
• Leaning Tower of Pisa - it’s a one hour, 8 euro train ride to Pisa. A half day is all you need (especially if you don’t climb the tower). 
• Duomo - buy tickets ahead of time!! The lines are crazy here too. We climbed the Duomo, and highly recommend it because the view from the top is beautiful. The climb up is 400+ stairs, and is pretty narrow, so if you’re easily claustrophobic I’d be cautious. 
• Piazza Michelangelo - a beautiful view of the entirety of Florence. My roommate and I took sandwiches up there and had a picnic.
• Mercado Centrale - a cute open market with leather goods and other souvenirs. There is an indoor part as well with pasta, liquor, and other Italian foods.
• Ponte Vecchio - bridge in the center of the city with jewelry shops lining the edges of its entirety. Gets crowded the later you go. Florence wakes up around 8:30am.
• Giuliano Ricchi - local artisan that presses 1 euro coins and turns them into braceletsfor a total of 6 euros. His shop is difficult to find. It’s in Santo Spirito. You walk into a hallway that looks like an apartment building and ring the doorbell labeled “Cecchi”. After a few seconds, Giuliano will let you in through the gate to his shop. He only speaks Italian, but we were able to communicate with him through Spanish! He walked us around his shop and let us watch the whole euro pressing process. It was very cool and I got a unique souvenir! 

Food:

• Quattro Leoni - restaurant near Santo Spirito. Very tasty and not too expensive. I had their famous pear tortellini. 
• Berberé - good, inexpensive pizza. I had the pumpkin/mushroom and it was good. My roommate had the Margherita and said it was the best pizza sauce she had in all of Italy. 
• I Porci Comodi - cheap sandwiches in Pisa! Huge portions! Near the University of Pisa.
• All’Antico Vinao - hole in the wall sandwich place. SO GOOD. I ordered “no meat” and am still not entirely sure of everything that was on my sandwich, but it was delicious and vegetarian. 
• Restaurant in Santo Spirito - I forgot the name of it, but it’s in the piazza. It’s the one restaurant on the side with the bars. Very good spaghetti. 

Rome:

Rome is a large city that I compared slightly to New York City in size and energy.
It was really neat to see ancient ruins casually mixed in with the rest of the modern city.
Despite being so large, it was easily walkable! Nothing was more than 30 min from our Airbnb
in the Trastevere neighborhood.
Trastevere is a suburb on the Vatican side of the river which I highly recommend either staying
in or visiting because of its typical Italian charm and plethora of delicious restaurants.

**We did the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps all in one day,
and definitely recommend. We got to our last stop, the Spanish Steps, around 2:30.

Sites to see:

• Colosseum - buy tickets online in advance! We walked right in while hundreds of ticketless people stood in line under the Roman sun.Also, get there early because it gets crowded. We got there around 9:30, and it was already a zoo. Rome offers a few different museum pass options, you can check out here. 
• Roman Forum - right across the plaza from the Colosseum and the same ticket. It’s huge, and you’re able to walk around the forum itself as well as hike up onto Palatine Hill in order to look at the forum from above. 
• Trevi Fountain - walking distance from the Colosseum and Roman forum. It’s crowded but very pretty. We only spent about a half hour there to take pictures and throw a coin in the fountain. 
• Spanish Steps - walking distance from Trevi Fountain. Also very crowded but we were able to find a spot to sit and enjoy the sun. 
• Pantheon - free! We went for about half an hour. The painter Raphael is buried inside.
• Vatican City - we spent 3 hours in the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel because they are HUGE.We decided not to go into Saint Peter’s Basilica because it was an extra cost (20+ euros per person) and we were museum-ed out. 
• Piazza Navona - piazza with statues and street performers. Nice place to sit, but there are many people who will try to sell you stuff (selfie-sticks were a popular item)
• Campo de Fiori - cute piazza with an outdoor food market everyday until 3pm.

Food:

• Frigidarium - the BEST gelato in Italy. We went 3 times. For 2 euros they give you a small cone with 2 large scoops and the choice of having it dipped in white/milk chocolate or with whipped cream. 
• Grazie e Graziella - a cute restaurant in Trastevere. We each had an eggplant/zucchini/pepper pizza and they were delicious. 
• Pane e Salame - cheap sandwiches near the Trevi Fountain. One of the few places in Italy where we found poultry on the menu.

• Bread-in - sandwiches near Piazza Navona. Very tasty. I had the “Taxi Driver” which had salmon on it.