Where to sleep for free in Italy

Nine ways to sleep for free while you travel, from hospitality exchanges and home swaps to staying in monasteries and crewing a boat, to sleeping on trains, in airports, and even in strangers' apartments

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The Italy Bookshelf

ITALY GUIDEBOOKS

FUN & INSPIRATION
Yes, it can be done! There are at least nine ways you can spend the night in Italy absolutely for free. And the best news is that none of them involves park benches or climbing out hotel windows and down fire escapes at 4am.

Sleeping for Free
• CouchSurfing
• Sleeping in airports
• Overnight trains
• Hospitality exchanges
• Servas
• Monasteries
• Home swapping
• Crewing a boat
• WOOFing

Some of these techniques do involve joining a club or network, and there is a fee involved with that, but spending the night won't cost you a dime—and besides, those one-time fees tend to cost less than a single night's stay in a mid-priced hotel.

There a really three categories of techniques, those that are:

Totally free, like CouchSurfing and sleeping in airports
Only sometimes free or involve small fees, including overnight trains, hospitality exchanges, Servas, and monasteries.
Come with some sort of catch, like owning a home you can swap, or working for your board, as is the case with WOOFing or crewing a boat.

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Where to sleep for free in Italy

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