Renting an Apartment in Italy: Key Italian Phrases (A2-B1)
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Renting an apartment in Italy for your holidays means, sooner or later, a real conversation with the owner — checking in, asking where things are, maybe dealing with something that doesn’t work. Here’s the vocabulary and two real dialogues to handle it with confidence.
Essential vocabulary for renting an apartment in Italian
Before the dialogues, here are the five most useful words:
- il piano — the floor of a building (il piano terra is the ground floor, then il primo piano, il secondo piano, and so on)
- l’asciugamano — the towel, the one you use after a shower
- tutto il necessario — everything you need, all the essentials
- il riscaldamento — the heating system that warms the house in winter
- il termostato — the device used to set the temperature of the heating
How do you ask what floor an apartment is on in Italian?
Use a che piano? — “on what floor?” It’s the standard way to ask for a floor number in any building, not just an apartment you’re renting.
- A che piano si trova l’appartamento? — “What floor is the apartment on?”
- L’appartamento è al terzo piano. — “The apartment is on the third floor.”
If there’s no elevator, you’ll hear non c’è l’ascensore — “there’s no elevator” — worth asking about before you commit to a third-floor walk-up with your suitcases.
Where do you ask for towels and other essentials in Italian?
Dove sono gli asciugamani puliti? — “Where are the clean towels?” — is a natural question for any short-term rental, and the answer will usually point you to a specific room:
- Gli asciugamani sono in bagno. — “The towels are in the bathroom.”
If you want to ask more generally whether everything you need is provided, use tutto il necessario:
- C’è tutto il necessario in cucina? — “Is everything you need in the kitchen?”
How do you ask for the Wi-Fi password in Italian?
Dov’è scritta la password del Wi-Fi? — “Where is the Wi-Fi password written?” In Italian rentals, the password is very often written down somewhere in the apartment rather than sent by message, so this is a genuinely useful question to know.
- La password è scritta su un foglio vicino alla televisione. — “The password is written on a piece of paper near the TV.”
The same pattern works for asking about anything nearby, like the closest supermarket:
- Dov’è il supermercato più vicino? — “Where’s the nearest supermarket?”
- Il supermercato è all’angolo, a due minuti a piedi. — “The supermarket is on the corner, a two-minute walk away.”
How do you say the heating isn't working in Italian?
Il riscaldamento non funziona — “the heating isn’t working” — is the phrase you need if your room is cold and you want to say something about it.
- Il riscaldamento non funziona, in camera fa freddo. — “The heating isn’t working, it’s cold in the room.”
Once the owner walks you through the fix, they’ll likely mention il termostato — the thermostat. Listen carefully to where it is: in a typical explanation, it might be near the door rather than near the window, which is an easy detail to get wrong if you’re only half-listening.
- Il termostato si trova vicino alla porta. — “The thermostat is near the door.”
How do you ask about check-out time and book a taxi in Italian?
For check-out, the key phrase is entro le + [ora] — “by [time]”:
- Può lasciare l’appartamento entro l’una. — “You can leave the apartment by one o’clock.”
And if you need transport afterward, you can ask the owner to book it for you:
- Può prenotarmi un taxi? — “Can you book me a taxi?”
Pay attention to the destination the owner confirms back — in a real conversation, it might not be the one you expect (an airport instead of a train station, for example), which is exactly the kind of detail Italian listening practice trains you to catch.
If you’re also brushing up on other everyday situations, we’ve covered ordering at a restaurant and asking for what you need at the pharmacy and the vocabulary for a supermarket in Italy in separate guides.
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Renting an apartment in Italy means being ready for a handful of predictable topics: the floor and the elevator, where things are kept, the Wi-Fi password, a heating problem, and check-out logistics. Once you recognize these patterns, real conversations with your host get a lot easier to follow — even when the details don’t go exactly the way you expect.
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