Italian cities with the highest price increases at hotels and restaurants

Jamie Evawin on Unsplash

12 July 2023, 23:00

Tourism, both at home and abroad, is definitely settling down to pre-covid levels. However, travelling after the pandemic may be more expensive, and not only because flight prices have risen sharply. In fact, several items of expenditure have risen due to inflation. A report by the Unione Nazionale Consumatori (National Consumers' Union) has drawn up a ranking of the Italian cities with the highest price increases at hotels and restaurants.

Hotel price rises

Accommodation costs (which include hotels, motels, pensions, bed and breakfasts, agritourism, holiday villages, campsites and youth hostels) have risen by an average of 13.6% nationwide compared to May 2022. But the situation varies a lot, in the various cities.

The most striking example is Florence, where the annual increase is 53%, almost four times the Italian average. It is followed by Palermo (+35.9%) and Milan with (+27.7%). Significant increases were also recorded in Olbia Tempio (+27.2%), Venice (+25.5%), Rome (+20.9%), Ravenna (+20%), Caserta (+19.4%) and Treviso (+17.9%). Pisa closes the top ten with +17.8%.

But there are also five cities in deflation. Above all, Turin, where housing costs fell by 13.8% in one year. In second place is Caltanissetta with -8.9%, in third place Rimini with -7.7% (evidently suffering from the collapse in demand and cancellations following the flood).

Restaurant price rises

For restaurant services (restaurants, pizzerias, bars, pastry shops, ice cream parlours, delicatessens and rotisseries) the situation in the various cities is decidedly more balanced compared to the housing scenario. With an annual inflation rate for Italy of 6.5%, restaurant bills in Viterbo are 15.3% higher than a year earlier. In second place is Brindisi, +12.3%, and in third place Cosenza, +11.5%.

On the other side of the table are the cities where the cost of eating out has risen the least. The city with the lowest increases is Trapani (+3%), in second place Ancora (+3.2). In third place is Terni (+3.4%).

Food price rises

For food and non-alcoholic beverages, there was an average increase in Italy of 11.8%. But in some cities the situation is different. Leading the ranking of the cities with the highest price rises is Ravenna (Emilia-Romagna), where for food and beverages you will pay 15% more than in May 2022. In second place Cosenza (Calabria), with a price variation of 14.6%, in third place Grosseto (Tuscany) where eating and drinking costs +14.5% more.