Money In Genoa: Euros, Cards, Coperto And Tipping

Genoa, the coastal city in Liguria on the Ligurian Sea, is one of the cheaper big-city stops in north-west Italy, but its money questions are specific: a city tourist tax charged per night, a bus and metro network with one flat ticket, a set of museum cards with 2026 rates, and a tipping culture that works differently from the American one. This page sets out what each of those costs, using the figures the city's own operators publish, and explains how to handle cash and cards without guessing.

Italy is in the European Union, the Schengen area and the eurozone, so every price on this page is in euros and is never converted. The city's population was 566,247 at 1 January 2026, reported by ISTAT via comuniecitta.it, with 820,691 in the metropolitan city: a working port town rather than a resort, and priced accordingly.

What Currency Does Genoa Use?

Genoa uses the euro, Italy being a founding eurozone member, and every local price in the city is quoted in EUR: a 2.00 EUR bus ticket, a 26.00 EUR starting Aquarium ticket, a 24 EUR 24-hour Genoa Museum Card. There is no second currency, no parallel rate and no practical reason to change money into anything else before arriving.

Euro coins run 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents plus 1 and 2 EUR pieces, and banknotes cover everything larger. Cash is still accepted everywhere in Genoa, and small change is genuinely useful at market stalls, bus ticket machines and the tourist offices. The IAT Garibaldi office at Via Garibaldi 12r is open daily 09:00 to 18:20, and IAT Porto Antico at Ponte Spinola daily 10:00 to 17:00, if a paper map or a booking question is easier solved in person.

For context on prices you will actually pay getting around the city, here are the published AMT fares and the fixed airport taxi rate in one table:

Note the airport bus detail: the Volabus requires the 10.00 EUR Met Daily ticket (24 hours, full network). The Volabus, which links Genova Cristoforo Colombo airport to Genova Piazza Principe, Piazza De Ferrari and Genova Brignole in about 30 minutes, requires the 10.00 EUR Met Daily ticket, which then covers the whole AMT network for 24 hours. More detail is on the Genoa public transport guide and the Genoa airport guide.

Do You Need Cash In Genoa?

Cards are accepted for the Aquarium, the museums, the transport apps and the tourist services, but carrying some euro cash in Genoa is still sensible for small purchases, ticket machines and any stall or counter with a card minimum. The AMT app, contactless validation and online museum booking cover the big costs; coins cover the rest.

AMT sells and validates tickets through its app, by SMS, with ILA contactless cards on board, at machines and at retailers, so a day of buses and the metro needs no cash at all. The Aquarium's ticket page sells fixed-date and combined tickets online, and its prices are dynamic, moving with demand by date, so the from-prices are exactly that: starting points.

What cash does better in Genoa is the small stuff. A focaccia stop, a market stall at the Mercato Orientale, a coffee taken standing at a bar: these are cash-friendly transactions where rounding up is easy and appreciated. Planning pages like the what to eat in Genoa guide and the Genoa on a budget guide cover where the small spends concentrate.

One practical rule keeps everything simple: pay the big items by card, in euros, through the operator's own channel or the operator's live listing, and keep coins for the day's small purchases. That combination covers every payment situation the city presents.

How Much Is The Tourist Tax In Genoa?

Genoa's imposta di soggiorno is charged per person per night by accommodation type: 2.00 EUR at 1-star hotels, 2.50 EUR at 2-star hotels, 4.00 EUR at B&Bs, affittacamere and case per ferie, and 2.00 EUR at hostels, agriturismi, marina resorts and campsites, and only the first 8 consecutive nights are taxed, per the comune of Genoa's own tourist-tax page.

The 3-, 4- and 5-star hotel rates of 3, 4 and 5 EUR, the 5.00 EUR holiday-apartment rate (4.00 EUR in Municipi IV, V and VI) and the under-14 exemption are reported rather than confirmed, so confirm the exact amount at booking. Children aged 14 and under are exempt under the reported rules, as are several other categories the regulation lists. The tax is normally collected by the accommodation at check-out, in cash or by card, and appears on your bill as a separate line from the room rate.

The extra-hotel tariffs are new from 1 August 2026 under the city's decision DGC 166/2026, so a booking made earlier in 2026 for a stay after that date may show a different expected tax than the one finally charged. The where to stay in Genoa guide goes into the neighbourhoods; the tax itself is uniform across the city within each category, with only the peripheral-apartment discount varying by district.

What Do The Main Attractions Cost In Genoa?

The Aquarium of Genoa starts from 26.00 EUR for a fixed-date adult ticket, with reduced tickets from 20.00 EUR and children 4 to 12 from 16.00 EUR, under-4s free, per the Aquarium's own ticket page; the combined Aquarium, Biosfera and Bigo ticket starts from 37.00 EUR; the Genoa Museum Card costs 24 EUR for 24 hours and 45 EUR for 48 hours and covers 28 city museums.

The Aquarium's pricing is dynamic, meaning the from-price is the floor and specific dates cost more. Children under 4 enter free, and the reduced rate covers military, over-65 and disabled visitors. The Bigo panoramic lift alone costs 6 EUR adult, a price reported on the Aquarium's pages. The Genoa Aquarium tickets guide walks through the ticket types in detail, and you can also Check availability on the operator's live listing to see the exact price of your date before committing.

The Museum Card's 28 museums break down as 19 municipal plus 9 others, and only the "+bus" card variants include AMT transport; none of them covers Volabus, Navebus or trains. The Strada Nuova museums, Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Doria-Tursi, run a combined ticket with the Museo di Sant'Agostino at 14 EUR full and 9 EUR reduced, and in the winter timetable from 28 September 2026 to 18 April 2027 they open daily 10:00 to 18:30, with Mondays limited to Palazzo Rosso only. Visitors can consult the official site for details.

Should You Tip In Genoa And Italy?

Tipping in Italy, Genoa included, is discretionary and never an obligation: service is part of the hospitality transaction, rounding up a cafe bill or leaving a few euros after a full restaurant meal is a courtesy rather than a required percentage, and nobody will chase you for more. There is no fixed rate this page can quote you, because none is published.

That last point matters more than any number. Italian restaurant bills may include a cover charge, the coperto, listed as its own line when it applies, and any service charge appears on the bill itself before you decide what to leave on top. Rather than importing a percentage habit, read the bill you are actually handed: if the printed lines already cover service, whatever you add is a thank-you, and if you cannot see such a line, ask the staff directly what the house practice is. The wider set of guides lives on Genoa Travel Guide.

In cafes and bars, the ordinary Italian habit is to pay at the register or counter and, at most, leave the small coins from the change. Taxi drivers are commonly rounded up to the nearest euro or a little beyond. Hotel porters and room cleaners are sometimes given a small amount at the end of a stay, entirely at the guest's discretion. Tour guides are the one group where a tip is more customary: on a paid guided walk or boat trip, a few euros per person at the end is a normal expression of satisfaction, though no operator on this site requires or solicits one, and none of the tours listed here is described as free or tip-based.

The cash versus card question in Italy runs deeper than tipping, and the honest summary is this: carry a card for everything bookable, carry modest cash for everything counter-height, and treat tipping as a personal gesture with no arithmetic attached. The free things to do in Genoa guide shows how much of the city, from the caruggi to the Spianata Castelletto viewpoint, costs nothing at all.

What Does A Day Trip From Genoa Cost?

The published day-trip figures from Genoa include the Golfo Paradiso Two Gulfs boat tour at about 29 EUR full day (about 21 to 26 EUR half day, reported), the FAI abbey at San Fruttuoso at 10 EUR full entry, and the Cinque Terre Treno Card at 22.00 to 35.00 EUR for one adult day depending on date band, so a coastal day out can be planned to the euro before leaving the city.

The Two Gulfs tour leaves Calata Mandraccio at Porto Antico at 11:00 on listed dates from March 2026, calling at Nervi, Recco, Camogli, San Fruttuoso and Portofino, with crossings of about 30 minutes between the main stops. The San Fruttuoso abbey, run by FAI, charges 10 EUR full, 5 EUR for visitors aged 6 to 18 and students to 25, free under 5, with a 26.00 EUR family ticket. The abbey closes when boats cannot land, so its opening is weather-dependent by definition.

The Via dell'Amore at the Cinque Terre is included in the card, with a time slot that must be booked, and it runs 09:00 to 21:00 (last entry 20:30) from 29 March to 24 October 2026. Getting to these places is covered in the Genoa to Portofino guide and the Genoa to Cinque Terre guide, both of which price the rail and boat options against each other.

How Do Card Payments And Bookings Work In Genoa?

Booking online before arrival is the standard pattern in Genoa: the Aquarium sells fixed-date tickets with dynamic prices, the museums sell the Genoa Museum Card digitally, AMT sells the Met Daily through its app, and tour operators run their own live listings, all charged in euros and often cancellable, so there is little reason to queue at a desk with cash on the day.

The one inline habit worth forming is checking the cancellation terms at the moment of payment rather than after. Tour listings state their own terms, and the Aquarium's fixed-date ticket is date-bound by design, while its Open Flexi ticket, reported at 38 EUR adult with one date change allowed, exists precisely for travellers whose schedule is not fixed. The best time to visit Genoa guide and the Genoa weather guide help pin dates in the first place: the official 1971-2000 normals for Genoa Sestri put October's rainfall at 171.3 mm and July's at 24.2 mm, a spread worth knowing when you buy a non-refundable date.

For the practical spine of a trip, three pages carry the numbers: how to get to Genoa for rail and air entry, the Genoa train stations guide for Genova Piazza Principe and Genova Brignole, and the Genoa cruise port guide if the city is a shore stop, where hours and fixed fares matter more than any budget spread.

What Budget Shapes Should You Expect In Genoa?

The fixed, published costs of a Genoa day are the 2.00 EUR AMT ticket, the 24 EUR 24-hour Museum Card, the from-26.00 EUR Aquarium entry and the per-night tourist tax of 2.00 to 5.00 EUR by category, while food, lodging and shopping prices are not published figures this page can responsibly quote, so build the day around the knowns and keep the rest flexible.

What is verifiable adds up quickly enough to plan with. A two-museum day with transport fits inside 30 EUR per person; an Aquarium afternoon with the combined ticket starts around 37 EUR; a full coastal day trip by boat starts near 29 EUR reported. Against those, the city's walkable core costs nothing: the old town, one of the largest medieval historic centres in Europe at 113 hectares, the Porto Antico, and the Spianata Castelletto, reached by the 1.20 EUR Castelletto Levante lift, are free to roam.

Eating well in Genoa is not a matter of spending large amounts but of knowing the local staples, which the pesto genovese guide and the focaccia guide describe: Basilico Genovese PDO basil in the pesto, and focaccia di Recco, IGP since 2015 and produced only in Recco, Camogli, Sori and Avegno, as the cheese-filled variant to look for. Prices at individual counters are the shop's business, and menus state them.

Common Questions About Money And Tipping In Genoa

The short version of all of it: euros only, cards for anything bookable, coins for the counters, and a tourist tax of a few euros a night. For everything the city itself prices, from the 24 EUR 24-hour Museum Card to the 45 EUR 48-hour version, this site's individual guides carry the full detail, starting from Genoa Travel Guide.