Published on: 9 April 2014  | Last updated: 2 January 2020

On this page:

• Hotels etc
• Hostels
• Campsites

Hotels etc

Italy has a bewil­dering range of names for places offering accom­mod­ation. Unfortunately, they don’t always provide a guide to what to expect. Here are some pointers.

Albergo: (the Italian word is giving way to the French-English ‘hotel’). Usually, you can expect a restaurant, and all hotels will serve breakfast — although there’s nothing to stop you just asking for a room without breakfast (colazione). You’ll occasionally see the word relais — generally a hotel with up-market pretensions.

Albergo diffuso: an albergo diffuso means that instead of a single building with reception etc and bedrooms, accom­mod­ation for guests will be in a number of properties with guests coming to a central point for breakfast and possibly dinner. The concept of the albergo diffuso has been important in the regen­er­ation of a number of villages — one of the best known examples is the Sextantio albergo diffuso in the village of Santo Stefano di Sessanio in the Gran Sasso national park.

Agriturismo: the basic concept is a farm that offers products and services to tourists. Some agrit­urismi are very much working farms, while in others tourism is the main earner — there’s nothing to stop someone buying a rural property and opening an agrit­urismo and not doing any actual farming. Most agrit­urismi offer a place to stay and often an evening meal, an agrit­urismo could also be somewhere simply offering apart­ments to rent by the week, or just a restaurant. Agriturismi can be a great option, but … also, it’s rare for signs that you see on the road to tell you how far away the agrit­urismo is, or give a phone number. (The word ‘bio’ (eg agrit­urismo bio) means organic).

You might also come across the term agricampeggio. This might mean that the campsite is on a farm — or it might not — but it tends to indicate a simpler, more basic site.

Bed and Breakfast: just as the word hotel is shoul­dering the word albergo aside, so bed and breakfast has become more and more common — but with often widely differing inter­pret­a­tions. As in the UK or America, a bed and breakfast will be a small business offering only a few rooms, but in Italy a bed and breakfast can mean an apartment (or shared apartment) with cooking facil­ities and breakfast will be a supply of coffee and pre-packed cornetti or biscotti — or altern­at­ively a voucher for breakfast at a local café or bar. A bed and breakfast can be an economical option compared to a hotel but it can also be more upmarket.

Affitacamere: the word affit­acamere trans­lates (more or less) as ‘rooms for rent’. Usually this mean economical, but there are some upmarket affit­acamere. You’ll often see the word alongside bed and breakfast.

Garni: the word garni is used widely across northern Italy for a smaller hotel.

Country House: more scope for confusion. Many tourist guides and accom­mod­ation listings use ‘country house’ as the trans­lation for casa rurale — a house in the country often available for rent to groups. But you will come across hotels styling themselves as a ‘Country House’ often offering things like spa treat­ments, pool etc etc.

Religious houses. Many monas­teries, and convents and similar religious houses offer accom­mod­ation. Sometimes this is a commercial operation to bring in money, but on the pilgrimage routes the emphasis may be more on providing shelter for pilgrims — and you may need to be able to show a pilgrims credential. monasterystays.com offers a booking service for a number of religious houses across Italy, prices seem comparable with budget hotels.

There are other words you may come across:

• locanda/osteria. This is a bit like the English words inn and hostelry — places that once provided services to travellers but today may offer food and a place to stay or may just offer food;
• forestiera. A forestiere is a foreigner or guest. So a forestiera could be anything from a hostel to a bed and breakfast;
• casale. A large farmhouse;
• tenuta/podestà/masseria. Different types of farmhouse — a masseria used to be afortified farmhouse;
• dimora storica/residenza d’epoca. A dimora is a residence. Usually used in the phrase ‘dimora storica’. A residenza d’epoca is basically the same thing. The terms can mean preten­tious and expensive but it can also mean some of the more inter­esting and evocative places to stay in Italy

Hostels

The Italian hostels associ­ation is the Associazione Italiana Alberghi per la Gioventù, it offers a booking service, as do Hostels International but many hostels are not members of either group. 

Many hostels are now listed on booking.com.

Many hostels will also offer private rooms. There are quite a few that are located in old monas­teries or other historic buildings — so these can be an attractive option.

Some hostels are only open in the summer season. You can come across hostels that are only available for rentals by groups (‘auto-gestione’).

Rifugio: The word rifugio is usually trans­lated as ‘mountain hut’, but they can be either a small hotel, or a hostel, or just a restaurant. The term bivacco is used for something that really is a hut or bothy. The CAI — Club Alpino Italiano owns and runs a number of rifugi, but many are independently-owned.

Finding somewhere to stay

I mainly use booking.com. This seems to be well-estab­lished in Italy and is used by a lot of hotels. I have got some bargains in low season, but generally, the prices seem to be comparable with the hotel’s normal rate. The main advantage is that I can get an instant confirm­ation. The user ratings are a pretty reliable.

I’ve never used tripad­visor to book accom­mod­ation, but it also seems to be well-estab­lished. It also has user reviews which are generally helpful.

The website terranostra.it is a portal for agrit­urismi operated by an offshoot of the farmers’ organ­isation Coldiretti. In theory it’s available in four languages but in the English version many of the pages with details of individual pages weren’t available (I don’t know whether the same is true for the French and German-language versions). Where the terranostra.it site might be partic­u­larly useful is if you are inter­ested in wine and wanted to stay in agrit­urismi on vineyards — the advanced search page (ricerca avanzata) lets you search for vineyards offering accommodation.

If you like the idea of staying in an agrit­urismo you might also want to check out agriturismo.it (it/en/de/nl). According to its website they are the only site that promotes real, authorised, agrit­urismi rather than B&Bs or holiday homes in the countryside. The site claims there are over 5000 agrit­urismi registered with it.

Camping in Italy

In general campsites are open from Easter to the end of September (in Tuscany the end of October). You’ll find excep­tions — some sites are open all year, but equally some coastal sites may only operate for a short summer season (or only open at weekends outside the main season).

Italy is a major destin­ation for German and Dutch campers. There are lots and lots of sites in the north and centre — especially in the on the coast and by the lakes. Inevitably campsites are harder to find away from the lakes and coast, especially as you move into the areas that are less well-known in the northern European market.

It’s also inevitable that campsites with a lakeside or beach­front location will tend to charge more and probably also give you less space. If you can do, it’s worth looking around for sites that have a less favourable location as they tend to offer you a bit more space — and seem to try just that little bit harder.

Italian campsites are usually very good, often with a restaurant, a bar and shop and pool. You do find some more basic and cheaper sites, but don’t expect to find as many cheap, basic sites as you’ll find in France. Expect to pay around 12€ for one person, maybe 18€ for two, in the off-season rising to 18€ in high season or at a site near a popular destin­ation. These days most campsites have a website with a price list (listino) so it’s easy to check prices.

The most useful source of inform­ation is eurocampings.eu (the site of the Dutch ACSI organ­isation). These listings aren’t neces­sarily compre­hensive — there are nice sites that aren’t included in either, and equally inclusion in the guide doesn’t neces­sarily guarantee quality, but they usually have enough inform­ation to give you a good idea of what to expect. The ACSI site also includes user ratings and reviews — even if many of the reviews are in Dutch or German, the ratings give a pretty good idea of which ones are good and which ones aren’t. (8 or more is a very good site, while 7 is good and 6 or so is OK for a night).

The ACSI website also includes inform­ation about how many pitches are let on a seasonal or annual basis, and how many are let to touring campers. This can be useful in telling you what sort of campsite to expect. Normally even sites with a majority of permanent residents will have an area for tourers, and sometimes even a separate area for tents, but If you’re unlucky, you can turn up at a site and find yourself in a gloomy corner amid the bungalows and caravans.

Area sosta camper

Camper is the Italian word for campervan. ‘I camper’ are big business in Italy. Many places have an area sosta camper (a sosta is a stop or rest break). Sometimes these are a parking place with no services, others have some services, and occasionally they are a full-fledged campsite that also accepts tents. Some are free while some charge a fee. Some of the sosta camper that I’ve seen might, at a pinch provide a place where you could put a tent without being in anyone’s way.

Camping without permission

In many places in tourist areas the mayor (il sindaco) has issued a regulation prohib­iting camping except in recog­nized campsites. The good news is that this suggests that there is no blanket ban on wild camping.

In areas where tourism is an important to the local economy the local municipal police may well take action against people camping without permission. In other areas — especially out in the country the carabinieri (national police force) are going to be much less concerned.

Some park author­ities also prohibit camping outside recog­nized campsites, but again there doesn’t seem to be a single national approach. Discretion, and keeping out of site, are probably the best idea.