Milan remains Italy’s most expensive city, costing 40% more than Naples

Milan has again emerged as Italy’s most expensive city, with a standard basket of goods and services costing almost €693, according to Codacons. Naples, by contrast, is the cheapest city surveyed, at about €402. The difference puts Milan’s total roughly 42% above Naples’.

Codacons based its annual comparison on price data from the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy’s price observatory, updated through June. The basket includes 33 items: 20 food products and 13 services, ranging from bars and hairdressers to pizzerias, veterinarians, dentists and cinemas.

The figures point to a country divided between a more expensive north and a cheaper south. Bolzano follows Milan at about €652, while Aosta and Bologna each come in at just over €640. Palermo costs about €464 and Catanzaro €474, both well below the northern cities.

Food prices alone exceed €200 in Milan, Bolzano, Trieste, Bologna, Genoa and Florence. The total falls to about €170 in Bari and Palermo, €154 in Pescara, €149 in Catanzaro and €140 in Naples. Services show an even sharper divide: about €491 in Milan and €452 in both Aosta and Bolzano, compared with €292 in Palermo and €262 in Naples.