Landed in Rome 8/15 ATMs at the airport were down. Later in town, also found difficulty with bancomats. Today we followed several people who were going from machine to machine trying to get a response. Might want to come with a back-up plan. We had brought some cash which we exchanged here and a few euros that we got from AAA.

Wow, you never expect that to happen! I'm such a Sod's Law/Murphy's Law person, though... I usually exchange about $100 at the departure airport, bring credit cards and one set of traveler's checks, because if I don't, I'm pretty sure all of the banks will be out of order.

Good job on bringing the cash!

How about the exchange booth at the airport as a backup?

that happened once to in Italy - all ATMs were out of cash due to some national strike of some type

Always carry credit cards which can be used almost anywhere (even better rate of exchange in my case) and carry a few extra hundred euros - which the airport or train station exchanges can convert - better than buying in the U.S. i think

Geez, what a nightmare! We usually try to bring a few hundred euros home to start the next trip (and hedge against inflation), but only brought home the couple of stray ones in the bottom of the wallet after our January trip, figuring the rate was so bad it could only get better.

Now I'm thinking about landing in Venice in October and having this potential problem. So, <b>hanks for the heads up</b>--I'll get some at Charles deGaulle between connections.