Personal Finance (Not Investing) • Travel to Italy

Hi. We are headed to Italy soon for 2 weeks from Turin thru the Piedmont and then to the Lakes. First time to Europe. All large expenses such as hotel/guides/entrance fees and events are paid for thru our travel service.

We were planning on getting cash here for tips and minor purchases and were planning on using our credit cards for restaurants and other usual stuff not already covered (not a lot of that). If we are doing this wrong please learn us!

We saw this recent thread on hidden ATM fees [ viewtopic.php?t=428757 ] which was a bit concerning.

If anyone has been there relatively recently, we'd appreciate any advise or guidance or warnings on using credit cards/getting cash there and on how best to use our cards/what to watch out for-traps for the unwary, etc. For example it appears that AmEx is not favored there (seems hotels/larger institutions are ok with it but smaller shops/restaurants are not). Is that generally true? In general are credit cards (Visa etc) accepted at restaurants/smaller businesses? Do you generally tip thru the credit card (or do you usually leave a cash tip)?

We have been and will continue to read up online but if anyone here has experience we'd consider it a 'trusted source' . Thanks!

Statistics: Posted by Scassi — Thu Apr 11, 2024 12:39 pm — Replies 13 — Views 535

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