Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Spending in Italy

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Spending in Italy

Going to Italy next week... I need to exchange some money for the trip to last the first few days. If I exchange $200 (approximately 40000 Lire), what is a good denomination to bring up? Cash in 2000 lire / 1000 lire / 5000 lire/ or 10000 lire? How much does it cost to buy postcards and postcard postage stamps for mail to US?

Think of what kid of bills you would want if you cashed a check for $200 for travel in the US. (For ease of figuring the exchange rate, think 2000 lire to the dollar). Before exchanging so much money prior to leaving, are you sure you won't have access to any ATMs your first few days in Italy? The machines are everywhere in Italy and the exchange rate is better. Postcards sell for about what they do in the US, perhaps less. Air mail is around 65-75 cents, I believe (unless it's gone up in the last few months).

$200 US will get you about 400,000 lire, if my math is correct.

Hi--I found it easy to break/get change for 50.000 lira notes or smaller. Tried to break the 100.000 notes in larger restaurants or banks or use them to pay for larger purchases. If you plan to use the bancomats (atms) to exchange money, you'll get 50.000 and 100.000 notes. It was also handy to have a bunch of 1000 and 2000 notes for taxis, cappuchinos, etc. Post cards were anywhere from 1000 to 1800 lira, depending on how close to tourist hubs you were and I got mixed information on postage. Mailed postcards with both 800 lira and 1000 lira stamps and both got here (took about three weeks though!) Have fun! Patti

As others have said, only take a small amount of cash for taxis etc on arrival and withdraw more cash from ATM once you are there. As for notes, 5000L and 10000L are most useful, and 2000L (US$1) for tips. You need some 500L coins (one with a brass centre) for trolley hire, church illumination etc, so keep the change. Anything below 50L will be rounded up. Postal rate (airmail) for postcard to US 1300L/60cents, and you can get a postcard from around 600-1000L/27-45cents. You can buy stamps from tabacchi and ussually from the shop selling cards, as well as post office.

Micki, I, too, change a bit of money before my departure. You may find that your local currency exchange, like my nearby American Express office, has lire but not a huge supply of small bills. I have never had trouble changing 50,000 or 100,000 lire notes, though I did feel a bit conspicuous about not having smaller bills. HTH.

Micki: Really not necessary to bring that much cash as the best exchanges rates are had when you're over in Italy. To get into the country, I'd only exchange $75 worth, (& I usually come in with less) --- check with your bank. I've always been able to use my ATM card & am only charged $1.25 per transaction. Never had any problems, even in smaller cities obtaining lire thru money machines in this manner. Back to your denomination question. When you do obtain lira here, do try to get it in as small bills as possible. If you can get any 10,000 lire notes (worth $5 USD), that would be great. Otherwise, they'll probably try to give you 50,000 or larger notes. It's a funny thing about Italy. They use cash much, much more than is done in USA versus credit cards or writing a check (or at least more often than where I live in Dallas, TX). BUT despite having a regular daily cash flow, most all stores prefer you to use exact change or bills that don't require alot of change. Often they'll give you the "look" if you try to pay using a lire note that's substantially larger than whatever you're purchasing. After 4 trips to Italy, I've never understood this preference for a 'no-change' policy.

Thank you everyone for the good advise.

Why is it necessary to bring lire with you to Italy? Is it difficult to exchange at the airport (in Rome) upon arrival? That was my plan, but maybe there's a reason to change my plan!

Norman, You're right; it is NOT necessary to bring lire with you to Italy. Those who do have a valid argument that it is more convenient to have already bought some at home for reasons like: 1. They are on a tight schedule to get to their first destination, and don't want to bother with finding that first bank or ATM. 2. They don't handle frustration well, such as the first ATM they find being out of order - - and that can be irritating after an overnight trans-atlantic flight. 3. They just want to see and handle some, to get used to what it looks like, and begin the mental process of this is worth "about a half a dollar", et cetera. By the way, the post office will try to persuade you to use 1300 ITL postage for "priority" stickers to go on your post cards, instead of the (minimum) postage of 800 ITL. The official standard for postcards is about 8 days Italy to US "priority", 25 to 28 days without. I think that actual delivery times are considerably shorter in both cases. Best wishes, Rex

Just went to Italy last month. ATMs are everywhere! Very easy to use. But do be sure you have a four digit PIN. We used credit cards for as much as possible (hotels, restaurants) as the exchange rate is definately the best and our bank charges $3.00 per transaction for using international ATMs.