Price of coffee in Italy in 2026: what an espresso costs at the bar in 56 provinces

Price of coffee in Italy: the key figures for August 2026

In August 2026 an espresso at an Italian bar cost on average between €1.06 and €1.52 depending on the province, and in 30 of the 56 provinces with data the average was €1.28 or less. The table sums up the main figures; the full list by province follows in the next section.

August is the latest month published by the Prices and Tariffs Observatory of Italy’s Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy (MIMIT) as of 9 October 2026. The national averages and counts are our own simple calculations from the provincial averages, not weighted by population or number of bars.

How much is a coffee at the bar in each Italian province?

This is the full table of the price of an espresso at the bar in the 56 provinces with data for August 2026, in alphabetical order. For each province you get the average espresso price, the lowest and highest prices recorded that month, and the average cappuccino price.

Cuneo, Forlì, Livorno, Lucca, Macerata, Pistoia, Ravenna and Vercelli are missing: they appear in the observatory’s list, but have no espresso price for August 2026.

Where is coffee most expensive in Italy, and where is it cheapest?

In the August 2026 data, the highest average price for an espresso at the bar is in Bolzano at €1.52, followed by Pescara (€1.51), Ferrara (€1.46), Trieste (€1.45), Belluno (€1.44) and Padua (€1.43). Of the 11 provinces averaging €1.40 or more, ten are in the north-east (Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Emilia-Romagna); the only exception is Pescara.

The lowest average is in Messina at €1.06, then Catanzaro (€1.08) and Aosta (€1.11); Benevento and Syracuse (€1.18) and Varese (€1.19) are also under €1.20. The lowest single price that month was €0.80 in Catanzaro and the highest €2.00 in Trieste: within one province, the gap between two bars can be wider than the gap between two cities’ averages.

Before turning this into a league table, read MIMIT’s own note: the observatory advises against using these price levels to compare cities or months, because the prices may refer to different combinations of product and outlet. Treat them as a snapshot of one month.

How much is an espresso in Rome, Milan and Naples?

In August 2026 an espresso at the bar cost on average €1.24 in Rome, €1.25 in Milan and €1.25 in Naples. Among the other big cities, Turin averaged €1.38, Bologna €1.37, Florence €1.28, Palermo and Genoa €1.26 and Bari €1.20.

In Rome the prices recorded that month ranged from €1.20 to €1.30, in Milan from €1.00 to €1.50, so a similar average can hide very different bars. The month matters too. Rome averaged €1.19 in June 2026 and €1.24 in August; that does not necessarily mean Roman bars raised prices in two months, because the prices may come from different outlets. This is why MIMIT points to Istat’s price indices for comparisons over time.

How much is a cappuccino in Italy?

A cappuccino at an Italian bar cost on average about €1.72 across the 56 provinces with data for August 2026, roughly 43 cents more than an espresso (simple average of the provincial averages, our calculation). The average ranged from €1.44 in Catanzaro to €2.30 in Bolzano.

In Rome a cappuccino averaged €1.45, in Milan €1.73 and in Naples €2.02. The highest single price recorded that month was €3.00, in Venice.

How much has the price of coffee in Italy risen since 2021?

Across the 53 provinces with an espresso price in both August 2021 and August 2026, the simple average of the provincial averages went from about €1.05 to about €1.29: 24 cents more, or roughly 23%. The average is higher in all 53 provinces.

The largest rises are in Parma (from €1.00 to €1.41), Bolzano (from €1.17 to €1.52) and Naples (from €0.90 to €1.25); the smallest in Benevento (from €1.17 to €1.18) and Aosta (from €1.05 to €1.11). Rome went from €0.96 to €1.24 and Milan from €1.04 to €1.25.

Read this as an indication, not a measure of inflation: MIMIT says comparisons over time should use Istat’s consumer price indices, because the bars surveyed can change over five years. Pescara, Belluno and Brescia have no August 2021 price and are left out of the comparison.

Where do these coffee prices come from?

The coffee prices on this page come from MIMIT’s Prices and Tariffs Observatory, which publishes monthly price levels for about 200 goods and services, processed by Istat, Italy’s national statistics institute, from the data of its consumer price survey. In the archive, espresso and cappuccino at the bar are filed under «Servizi» (services).

For the early months of 2026 the observatory states that it publishes only Istat’s on-the-ground survey data and MIMIT’s own source data. For prices collected on the ground it gives the lowest and highest prices actually recorded and the mean of the prices collected and validated: it is neither a set nor a recommended price, and a single bar may sit above or below the average.

Two limits are worth keeping in mind. Between provinces and between months, the prices may refer to different combinations of product and outlet, and MIMIT advises against using price levels for those comparisons; and eight provinces in the list have no August 2026 figure.

What is a free coffee on a café loyalty card worth?

A «buy ten, get one free» coffee card gives the customer back a tenth of what they spent: at Rome’s August 2026 average of €1.24, the free coffee is worth about 12 cents at menu price for every coffee paid for. For the café, though, the real cost of the reward is not the menu price but the dose, milk, cup and labour, which only the owner knows.

That is why the reward cost calculator starts from the actual cost and divides it by the visits required. The table shows only the menu value of the reward at the August national average of about €1.30: these are illustrative calculations, not results.

With Iterum (by FIDUS) the customer opens the café’s card from a QR code on their phone, with no app to download, and staff scan the card to confirm each visit. The counter workflow is explained on the loyalty card for cafés page, and you can try it with the 7-day free trial.

Sources and method

Sources consulted on 9 October 2026: MIMIT Prices and Tariffs Observatory, «Rilevazioni mensili – beni e servizi di largo consumo», archive, Servizi category, read province by province for August 2026 and August 2021 (and June 2026 for Rome); MIMIT Prices and Tariffs Observatory, «Dati e metodologie dell’Osservatorio Prezzi». The note on comparing cities and months is published on the archive page. Both sources are in Italian.

We quote the prices as published, in euros. National averages, medians, counts and differences are our own simple, unweighted calculations. We update the page when the observatory publishes a new month; the information about Iterum describes the product as of 9 October 2026. Iterum is loyalty card software and has no connection with the observatory.