The Ultimate Italian Staycation Ideas and Itinerary- Italy from Home
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THE ULTIMATE ITALIAN-THEMED STAYCATION
You’ve heard of spending your vacation time at home, but have you heard of turning your home into Italy?
Many people dream of visiting Italy:
Eating pizza, pasta, and gelato to their hearts delight.
Trying the local cheese, salami, and wine.
Shopping in Milan, visiting the Colosseum in Rome, and taking a gondola ride in Venice.
Exploring and admiring the picturesque towns in Cinque Terre, the Amalfi Coast, and Lake Como.
Wandering the vineyards in Tuscany, the museums in Florence, and the preserved streets of Pompeii.
There is something for everyone in Italy, which makes it the vacation destination for around 58.3 million people each year.
What if you want to travel to Italy but for one reason or another, just can’t? Maybe you can’t get enough time off from work, or you have other obligations keeping you at home. Maybe you can’t fly or the thought of traveling internationally is too much to handle right now.
Whatever your reason – if you’d like to travel to Italy, but you can’t actually make it there, then this Ultimate Italian Staycation, as well as this Teleport to Italy article, are your answers!
HOW TO USE THIS STAYCATION GUIDE
We created the ultimate list of Italian-themed staycation ideas. However, it’s best if you use this list of ideas to create your own staycation itinerary which best fits your hometown. Please make adjustments accordingly.
These Italian staycation ideas mostly represent the major Italian cities. If you have a specific region you want to “visit” on your staycation, tweak the activities and recipes to match that area in Italy.
If you were to visit Italy, you likely wouldn’t be interested in doing everything, you’d only do the things that interested you the most. Thus, it should go without saying that you should always plan your itinerary based upon your tastes and interests - so if you don’t want to do something, feel free to remove it!
That being said, why not give at least one new thing a try that you’re not so sure about. Travel tends to introduce us to new ideas - and ways of thinking through experiences - that we may or may not have planned.
We do recommend that you look for places outside of your home to add to your experience, but even if you decide to stay at home for this entire “Italian vacation,” you can experience new things just like when you travel.
SAMPLE 3-DAY ITALIAN STAYCATION ITINERARY
First, start out by getting your mind flowing with what it means to be in Italy.
After all, you've finally made it to Italy, don't you want to feel like you're in Italy as well?
The 2 short series of “Dream of Italy” can be watched an episode per day – first thing in the morning – to kick-start your mind into being in Italy.
Start your staycation days off by having your cappuccino or Italian coffee, with your window open, while you watch your daily episode.
Here’s a quick 3-Day sample Italian Staycation itinerary. Details for each entry are located in the idea list following the itinerary. Click the links to drop down directly.
Day 1
Italian Breakfast - Have a cappuccino.
Learn about Italian Culture & Customs.
Visit a Farmers Market.
Make your own pasta. Take an online class and learn a family recipe!
Go on a virtual walking tour of Rome.
Go to an Italian restaurant and use some Italian phrases.
Day 2
Watch “Dream of Italy” with your cappuccino.
Take a self-guided tour around Venice with Google Street view and a guidebook. Want a guide instead? Click here!
Make & eat lemon gelato.
Watch an Italian movie.
Make a margherita pizza.
Day 3
Watch “Dream of Italy”
Visit a library or museum to learn about Italian history.
Host an Italian cheese & wine tasting with friends.
Take time to relax.
Attend an opera performance or watch one online.
There’s actually enough items on the list below to have a 7-14 day Staycation in Italy - so, customize your itinerary to fit your needs.
ITALIAN STAYCATION IDEAS
We’ve separated the ideas into three categories, Food, Active, and Relaxation (FAR). You can do FAR things even if you can’t go far from home! Each section contains things that you can do from the comfort of your own home as well as things that you can do in your own neighborhood.
FOOD IDEAS
Have a cappuccino or espresso in the morning.
Italians believe that milk is not helpful to the digestive system so milk in coffee is frowned upon after a meal. Drink your cappuccino in the morning and the milk will be considered part of the meal.
However, a “regular” coffee in Italy is espresso – served in a small cup. If you’d like an American-style regular coffee – you’ll want an Americano. Trust us, if you ask for a “regular coffee” in Italy, you won’t end up with an “American coffee” - because why would an American coffee be “regular” in Italy? You can make your own Americano by making espresso and then adding hot water.
To try a more authentic Italian coffee, slow sip an espresso instead - feel free to add sugar, creme, or flavors (like hazelnut) if you wish.
Cook some region specific Italian dishes
You can limit yourself to one specific region or choose dishes from around the country. Dodge the foods that you think are Italian but really aren't. Try to be adventurous here and explore a few Italian recipes that you have never tried before. While it’s not the most amazingly produced series out there, The Flavors of Italy can give you a fairly good idea of the vast variety of foods found across Italy.
“Italy is great culinary diversity, both geographic and cultural, is truly reflected in its cooking. Take in the scenery, customs and culture of Italy's regions and presents the preparation of traditional and regional specialities from Torino to Taormina, from Bologna to Basilicata. All the recipes presented have been specially selected for their abundant flavoursome qualities”
Scroll to the bottom for some of our recommended Italian recipes to get you started!
Learn how to order from an Italian Menu.
Get familiar with the difference between pasta noodles like tagliatelle and penne. Create your own little “menu” for dinner - in Italian - and have your friends and family order their meal using Italian phrases and your menu items.
Go to an Italian restaurant.
If you’re feeling adventurous, try an Italian dish you’ve never had before. Ask the waiter for the most authentic Italian dish on the menu or simply let someone else choose your meal as a surprise. It’ll be like ordering from a menu that you can’t read (in Italian?) and hope you ordered something that you will like eating - this happens often when you're really in Italy. Be adventurous!
Have some gelato.
We ate gelato at least once a day during our time in Italy. It is a must-have for any Italian vacation or staycation! Buy some from your supermarket, or make your own at home. Bonus if it's flavored like lemons! See the end of this article on Italian themed staycation ideas for our recommended recipe.
Have an Italian cheese tasting.
Find out which region has the best cheese (in your opinion). Here’s a sampler to get you started. If you’d like to learn more about Italian cheese and the regions they are from, check out this site for more info.
Make your own pasta.
You can take a class to learn how to cook, or give it a try on your own. This recipe only uses two ingredients and you don’t NEED to have any special tools. Fresh noodles are delicious and are a fun activity to make on your Italian staycation!
Take a riposo - an extended lunch break.
Spend time chatting with family and friends, take a nap and feel refreshed. Disconnect from social media and use the time to reconnect in real life. Live life in the moment and enjoy it! Il bel far niente means “the beauty of doing nothing.”
ACTIVE IDEAS
Take a virtual self-walking tour by using Google Street View and an Italian guidebook.
You can use Google Street View to “walk” around and even go inside buildings like St. Peter’s Basilica. Pair your virtual stroll around Italy with a guidebook to give you in-depth information about the history, attractions, and culture of the area.
Additionally, if you have kids, make it an adventure by including Mission Rome or Mission Florence - and a kids travel guide like this one for Italy & Rome.
You can also take a virtual tour with a guide like this one in Venice, or this one of Pompeii!
Go on a virtual 360 tour.
Wear a 360 headset like this one, or get this affordable option and immerse yourself in Italy from your living room. Here are some links to 360 walking tours on YouTube.
Amalfi Coast (walking tour - no guide)
Rome (audio Guided tour)
Carnival in Venice (tour - music only)
Visit a farmers market.
It’s not only common in Italy to visit a farmers market, it’s a necessity! That is to say that you won’t find the seasoned Italian sauces that you find across the world in Italy. They almost never have seasoned sauces available in stores, opting to only sell the base sauce - which is essentially just blended tomatoes. To season up your dishes, you have to head out to the farmers markets (known locally as a “mercato ambulante”) to buy your spices. They really are the key to Italian cuisine.
“There are places where you can go eat in ten different spots, eat ten different things and it will all taste the same. In Italy, you can go to ten different places, eat the same dish ten times, and it will always taste different”
The city of Rome enjoys outdoor markets with local produce, spices, and goods. We highly recommend searching for a local farmers market in your area and making it a point to go there to pick up some citrus fruits (like oranges, lemons, and grapefruits), some fresh vegetables, hand-crafted pastas (for your meals during this staycation), and some variation of Italian spice mixes (there are quite a variety in Italy). Don’t have a farmers market near you? Get this sample starter pack for Italian flavors.
Use some Italian phrases in conversation.
To get you started, here are some easy-to-remember and useful phrases:
Good day! - Buongiorno!
Thank you! - Grazie!
You’re welcome - Prego!
Learn more useful phrases here.
Visit a library or Italian museum exhibit.
Italy is full of history. Learn about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the explosive eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and the start of the Renaissance in Florence. Alternatively, you could read these instead:
Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of An Empire
For a deeper insight into the fall read The Storm Before the Storm
Vesuvius, A.D. 79: The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum
The Medici: Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance
Or watch these if you prefer video:
National Geographic’s “In the Shadow of Vesuvius”
Get crafty - paint a masterpiece or create a sculpture.
Paint a masterpiece like one of the Italian masters - Leonardo Da Vinci. Additionally, you could create a sculpture like Michelangelo or Donatello.
You can acquire a bit of inspiration from the Artwork that came out of Florence during the Renaissance:
Attend an opera performance.
Add some Italian culture into your staycation. Operas are often sung and performed in Italian. No opera performances near you? Watch this performance of Pagliacci online (video below).
RELAXATION IDEAS
Get some fresh air.
Italian houses generally don’t have screens. The windows open up to let fresh air in. If you don’t want to open up your house to the fresh air or maybe your area doesn’t have clean air – try visiting a greenhouse or taking a walk in a park.
Take some time to relax.
In Italy, it is common to sit outside and relax with a glass of wine. You can try this at home as well. Grab a glass of wine - or your favorite Italian beverage - and sit outside like you would if you were staying beachside on the Amalfi Coast, in the vineyards of Tuscany, or the lakeside shores of Como. Pull up a YouTube video of the area on your tablet or cell phone to make it feel a little more real.
If you don’t like wine, you could try an Italian Sanpellegrino Blood Orange soda, a Lurisia Il Nostro Chinotto, or you could even make an Italian creme soda all by yourself. Sip your beverage slowly and try to think only about the taste of the beverage, the breeze from being outside, or some of the things that you’ve learned about Italy so far today. But truly try to sit there with your beverage and be at peace. It is important to really feel relaxed while in Italy!
Learn about Italian culture and customs.
This book gives a brief overview of Italy and teaches you about the history, daily life, customs, and culture of Italy. It’s a quick-read and covers all the essentials of Italian culture. Reading a little each day will help get you in the right mood for your other activities.
You’ll learn about the land & people, their values & attitudes, their festivals & traditions, their social values - how they make friends and communicate, their daily life, how they relax and take time out, how they get around, and even what a typical work day is like for them. It’s all encompassing and our favorite guide to truly understand Italians without being one yourself.
Watch a movie in the Italian language.
Or learn about how Italian voice over actors dub English-language films into Italian by checking out It's Better In Italian
Watch movies set in Italy.
ADDITIONAL TIPS
FOR YOUR ITALIAN STAYCATION
Dress up daily. Italian fashions vary in style from region to region, but they all dress purposefully.
Take time to taste and enjoy your food. Meals aren’t rushed - the dishes are savored and appreciated.
Spend time with extended family. Italians value family time and have frequent family gatherings.
Check to see if there are any Italian culture festivals in your area to attend - it helps to plan your Italian Staycation around the same time as nearby Italian festivals or events.
Visit your closest Little Italy if you have one nearby.
Decorate your home with an Italian feel. Use this book to help you.
ITALIAN DISHES AND RECIPES
Here are a few links to recipes of authentic Italian food. We searched for delicious, yet easy-to-make recipes. If you have any favorite Italian dishes or recipes you’d like to share, leave them in the comments!
Lemon Cream Pasta - We had this dish in Capri and love making it at home now! It’s a simple yet delightfully refreshing dish.
Lemon Gelato - The Amalfi Coast is famous for its lemons and lemon gelato is a must for any Italian Staycation!
Margherita Pizza - Naples is the birthplace of pizza, and a Margherita pizza is as authentic as you can get outside of Italy.
Naples Spaghetti patties - street food - Spaghetti frittatas are usually made from leftovers. The egg binds the pasta together and gives it a crispy outside, and soft inside. We picked up a couple from a street stand on a whim, and wished we had bought a few more!
Cacio e Pepe - This pasta dish from Rome typically only has 4 ingredients – noodles, pepper, cheese, and pasta water. It can be a little challenging to get the mixture just right, but the linked recipe gives great tips.
Not sure you can make pasta on your own? Take an online class! These guys share their nona’s family recipes and make the cooking experience fun!
Enjoy your Italian Staycation! Even if you can’t travel to Italy just yet, you can still enjoy the food, culture, history, and lifestyle of Italy at home. Tell us which tips and activities you liked best. If you have any activities you’d add or recipes that we must try, let us know in the comments below!
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