I truly believe that everyone should visit the Eternal City one time in their lives. I spent a summer living in Rome in 2015 and have been longing to return. Because Christmas is celebrated throughout December and up until January 6, we knew that winter break would be the perfect time to visit Rome as a family.

We tacked on Milan at the end because we had never been there and we were able to find great deals on flights home from Milan.

Can you visit Rome and Milan on a budget? The answer is YES. However, this requires:

Planning ahead.
Acquiring points and miles to cover your airfare and hotel stays.

I am a teacher and our daughter is now in public school. This means we only travel during “peak” season. We took advantage of an extra long winter break during December of 2025 to spend Christmas in Italy.

We earned our points and miles about 18 months ahead of the trip (June, 2024) and booked our flights 11 months in advance (January, 2025).

Here’s how we planned our trip from the East Coast to Italy using points and miles. (And all the cards we opened in order to make this trip happen for our family of 3.)

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links and links to credit cards that we use. For all affiliates, we earn a small percentage of any purchases. When we share links to credit card applications, if you click on that link and are approved, we will be compensated with points at no additional cost to you. We will never share any products or credit cards that we do not use ourselves.

Flight to Europe: Philadelphia to Rome

We flew from PHL to FCO using American Airlines points. Philadelphia is an American hub, so it’s easy to get across to Europe using these points. There are also an abundance of direct flights from Philadelphia to Rome in the winter and summer. You just might not get one every single day.

Total miles used: 27,000 per person/ 81,000 miles total
Cash paid: $5.60 per person/ $16.80 total
Credits card used: Citi American Airlines Advantage
Other cards you could use: Citi Strata Premier and Citi Strata Elite

Upgrade option: We receive an option to update to premium economy for this flight, which cost about $375 each. We had some flight credits available from a couple of our other cards, so we took advantage of this option to be a bit comfier and have a better chance of sleeping. The flight credits come from American Express Platinum card ($200/year) and the Ritz Carlton card. (You cannot apply for the Ritz Carlton card, but you can upgrade to it if you already have one of Chase’s Marriott cards.)

Want to visit Italy in the summer? Check out the Dolomites.

Hotel #1: Clarion Collection Hotel Principessa Isabella

Our flight changed after we booked it, so we needed another hotel for one night. We switched to a Choice hotel because they are only 20,000 points per night and allowed our family of 3 to book one room. If you need a good budget hotel, then this can work out perfectly. The room was large, the bathroom was great, and breakfast was included. It was also close to Christmas World and the Borghese Gardens. I would not stay here for an extended period of time if you are looking to be fully immersed in Rome, but for sleeping and eating, it met all of our needs.

Total miles used: 20,000 points total
Transferred from: Capital One, AMEX Membership Rewards, and Citi Thank You Points

This is an example of how having a points stash can come in handy. We were not able to add a night to our Hilton hotel and all the Marriotts were too much. However, the Choice hotel worked out well. It was not glamorous, but because we have flexible currency (Capital One Venture X

Cash paid: $0

Credits cards you could use: Capital One Venture or Venture X, American Express Gold, Citi Strata Elite

Hotel #2: SLH: Palm Suite

We used Hilton points to book Palm Suite, which is part of (SLH) Small Luxury Hotels of the World. When in Rome, we like to stay in smaller hotels that have a more intimate feeling. Set in an 18th-century building in the heart of the city, this hotel is right next to the Colosseum and Forum. This hotel allowed us to fit 3 people in one room, but if you have a larger family, you would want to stay elsewhere. The hotel was beautiful; the staff was excellent. We had breakfast and espresso delivered to our room every morning. We would easily stay here again.

We booked 3 nights for 285,000 points. This sounds like a lot, but we opened two Hilton cards and were sitting on over 300,000 Hilton points, and Rome is an expensive city, so this worked out with the points we had. You can also transfer AMEX points to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio.

Here’s where I made a mistake; we should have booked 4 nights and gotten the 5th night free via Hilton.

Total points used: 285,000 (95,000 per night)

Cash paid: $0/person

Credits cards we used: Hilton Honors Surpass (American Express) *elevated offer ends on January 14, 2026

Hotel (Apartment) #3: La Roma di Cecilia

We paid cash for an apartment for the final 3 nights in Rome for a few reasons. We knew we wanted to be able to celebrate New Year’s Eve and have our daughter still sleep if she wanted to. (We took turns running out to the Piazza Del Popolo between 11:40 and 12:10am). We wanted to have access to a kitchen and laundry after a few days and skip eating out. We booked using Booking.com, which is our go to site for accommodations. We’ve used Booking for 10 years and have never had an issue.

Total miles used: 0

Cash paid: $943 ($314 per night)

Credit Cards: We paid for this booking with our Capital One Venture X card. This way we earn some miles to help pay for travel later on.

You could erase some of the purchase with points. However, we will not.

When we were first traveling and on a strict budget, we often used our Capital One Venture card to erase the cost of travel. Now, we try to maximize our points, and erasing purchases is not the best way to use these valuable points.

Hotel #4: Hilton Milan

We had extra Hilton points so we booked a hotel in Milan for one night before flying home. The Hilton Milan is near the train station, so it’s a perfect central location.

Total miles used: 115,000 Points

Cash paid: $0

Credit Cards: We again used our American Express Hilton Honors Surpass card for this booking.

Bonus: We had a late lunch at the hotel while we waited for our room; I was able to cover some of the cost of this lunch with our quarterly $50 Hilton credit.

Flight back to the US: Milan to JFK

We flew from Milan to JFK using Air France. We had a layover in Paris, which went very smoothly. Flying Blue, which is the reward program for KLM and Air France allows family pooling, so we can transfer points from each family member into one main account and book all of our tickets together. This means if our daughter has a random 3,000 points in her account, they do not just sit there for years; I put them in my account them and use them for future trips.

JFK is a great hub if you are returning to the US, or, if like us, you can drive or train home from NYC.

Total miles used: 83,875 miles total (children' under 12 are 25% off for points)
Cash paid: $171 per person ($165 for child)/ $507 total
Credits card used: American Express Gold, Capital One Venture
Other cards you could use: American Express Platinum, Capital One Venture X (These cards have higher fees, and I would not open these until you open the lower annual fee cards first.)