If you’re thinking of staying in Italy for a short- or medium-term period, you may find yourself faced with a bit of a conundrum in terms of what kind of accommodation to rent.
Staying for a month (or a few) is too long to rent a hotel room, but not long enough to warrant signing a full lease.
In this situation, you’ll want to find a place that you can rent without getting caught up in Italy’s famously long housing contracts, which are usually a minimum of three or four years.
Thankfully, there are plenty of places to look for housing that is for more than a vacation and less than taking up permanent residence. These are some places to start your search.
Word of mouth
The best housing usually isn’t found on public websites – it’s found through friends of friends.
If you're coming to Italy for a job or through a university, your institution should be your first port of call. Most will have a roster of trusted landlords or can at least direct you to online forums where you can seek recommendations from current and former employees or students.
That said, if you don’t already have a network in Italy, there’s no reason to worry. In this day and age, you won’t have any trouble finding a suitable place using one of the websites below.
READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Italy's new rules for short-term lets in 2025
Idealista and Rentalia
Idealista is an online marketplace for buying, selling, and renting homes in Southern Europe (particularly in Spain, Italy and Portugal).
The website and app are one of the go-to sources for anyone looking for a new place in Italy. Though most often used by locals looking to buy a home or rent for a long period of time, you can also find short-term rentals on Idealista.
The site allows you to filter not only by the amount of time you’re looking to stay but also by a number of other criteria, such as whether you’d like a balcony or air conditioning is a must-have.
Key to note: for a short-term let, you'll want a place that's furnished (arredato). You should be able to filter your search. Rentals in Italy most often come furnished – which is convenient for you, should you be looking to stay for a year or less.
READ ALSO: How to avoid being scammed when looking for a property to rent in Italy
Idealista also has a sister site, called Rentalia, which is specifically for short-term rentals of ‘vacation’ homes. It has fewer options than the main Idealista site, but it saves you the trouble of digging through listings to find landlords who accept short- to medium-term stays.
Keep in mind that sites such as Idealista and Immobiliare (more info on the latter below) connect you directly with the property owner or their agency. The websites themselves do not provide an intermediary service in the way Airbnb or Booking does.
Cities Reference
This Rome-based company started as a source for finding vacation rentals in the Eternal City. Now, after 30 years in business, Cities Reference has short-term rentals not only across Italy but also internationally.
One of the benefits of Cities Reference is that it’s a small Italian company, which may mean you can get more personalised and localised service than with huge rental platforms.
It’s also unique in that the rental prices of the apartments are negotiable. You can make an offer directly on the listing on the Cities Reference website.
It’s also convenient that some properties are eligible for immediate booking. In other words, you don’t have to wait for the landlord to confirm your booking request, which is the case with most other platforms.
READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: What you need to know about navigating Italian rental contracts
Immobiliare
Another go-to Italian real estate website is Immobiliare. Similar to Idealista, the site aggregates property listings from various sources.
It differs from Idealista in that its listings are more often from real estate agencies than from private landlords. Finding a place through an agency means you’ll be paying a fee. If you’re just looking for a place to rent for a couple of months, paying a costly fee may not be worth it.
You may also find that Immobiliare has a few more listings than Idealista, though both have plenty of choices.
READ ALSO: Eight things landlords in Italy can never ask of tenants
Sabbatical Homes
Sabbatical Homes is run by a small team in the US, but they have a worldwide database – including about 250 homes for rent in Italy at the time of writing.
This platform is geared toward academics looking for rentals or listing their homes related to traveling for scholarship. The website also facilitates home exchanges.
Most of the homes are conveniently located near universities and educational institutions, but you do not strictly have to be an academic to rent from the platform.
One of the biggest perks is the platform’s low fees: they charge either €23 or €33 to join the site as a tenant (depending on whether you’re an academic or not), and a $50 USD fee if you book a property.
Europe-wide online rental platforms
There are a few websites – SpotAHome, Uniplaces, HousingAnywhere, etc. – that all serve a similar purpose. These are Europe-wide platforms that act as a middleman between private homeowners and people looking for an apartment or room to rent.
These online rental platforms function similarly to Airbnb in that they are fully online (i.e., you cannot visit the listing in person), and a deposit and first month’s rental payment are made through the secure platform.
READ ALSO: Renting: The Italian security deposit scams to watch out for
They most frequently market to students and young professionals looking for rooms or flats to rent in Europe’s major cities and college towns.
These types of online platforms can be convenient for finding a place completely online and for those who don’t have a support system in the country. These intermediaries do have high fees, but taking the stress off your shoulders may be worth it to you.
I used SpotAHome to find my first apartment in Rome, and I successfully presented the deposit confirmation at my Italian visa appointment.
Monastery Stays
If you don’t mind renting just a room rather than an entire flat, you might consider the unique experience of staying in a monastery or convent.
The options on the Monastery Stays website are specific to Italy (excluding a handful of options in Austria and Slovenia). Staying at a monastery or convent offers an insider’s experience of local life for Italy’s monks and nuns, and it’s open to all people. Participation in religious activities is not expected of guests.
READ ALSO: Can you rent in Italy as a non-resident?
It’s a similar experience to staying in a 3-star hotel: you rent a room with a private bathroom, and all listings on Monastery Stays’ website include breakfast.
Not all monasteries allow stays of multiple weeks, but those that do often offer reduced rates for longer stays.
Airbnb
Of course, there’s always Airbnb. If you only plan on staying for a few weeks, it's often simplest to go with a short-term booking site like Airbnb. The benefit is, of course, that you do not have to pay a deposit or deal with any other bureaucracy. The downside is that prices can be a bit steeper, though, depending on the city, they may not be too much more than the price of a rental from another short-term platform like SpotAHome.
If you're planning on staying for longer than a couple of weeks, however, it's probably more cost-effective to go the official route and sign a rental agreement.
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