Where to stay in Italy

Accommodation

For the first nights, pick a well-connected, secure district. (Neighbourhood price ranges below are indicative and change with season and booking lead time - check current listings rather than treating these as fixed.)

• Rome
• Prati - structured, residential, north of the Vatican, on Metro Line A.
• Monti - historic and walkable from Roma Termini, next to the Colosseum.
• Centro Storico - around the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, no direct metro access.
• Milan
• Brera - upscale, near the Duomo, pedestrian streets.
• Porta Romana - residential, south of the centre, on Metro Line M3.
• Stazione Centrale - convenient for airport rail transfers; stay alert in the plaza and side streets late at night.

What check-in requires, and what the law requires of your host:

• Bring a physical passport or valid national identity card. Under Article 109 of the TULPS, the accommodation manager must identify guests de visu (in person, or via a live video link that genuinely verifies the guest against the document) and upload their details to the State Police Alloggiati Web database within 24 hours of arrival - confirmed directly by the Polizia di Stato's own Alloggiati Web guidance.
• Look for the CIN plaque. Short-term rental law requires a National Identification Code (CIN) on a physical plaque at the entrance and on every online listing. Under EU Regulation (EU) 2024/1028, platforms across the EU must verify and display a valid registration number for listings in jurisdictions - including Italy - that require one; industry compliance trackers report a 20 May 2026 enforcement deadline for delisting unverified properties, though the regulation's own text does not fix that exact date for every member state, so treat it as the widely-reported target rather than a guaranteed one.
• Expect to be met in person, or genuinely seen on video. A Council of State ruling published 21 November 2025 (case 9101/2025) overturned an earlier TAR Lazio decision and confirmed that handing guests a key-box code with no visual identity check at all does not satisfy Article 109 TULPS. The court left open whether a live video-link check could count as "de visu" if it genuinely confirms the guest matches their ID in real time - an unattended key box with no check of any kind does not.

The tourist tax is separate from your room price. Imposta di Soggiorno is collected by the accommodation provider at check-in or check-out, per person, per night, for a maximum of 10 consecutive nights in Rome (confirmed by Roma Capitale's own FAQ).

• Rome - short-term rentals and B&Bs are charged a flat €6.00 per person per night. Hotel rates are tiered by star rating; check the current annex table on comune.roma.it, since third-party sites disagree on the exact figures.
• Milan - from 1 April 2026, short-term rentals, B&Bs and guesthouses pay a flat €9.50; hotels pay €3.00 (1-star), €4.00 (2-star), €7.00 (3-star), €10.00 (4-star) and €12.00 (5-star), confirmed on the comune.milano.it tourist-tax page, capped at 14 consecutive nights.