Do I need cash in Italy, or can I use cards?

Italy has caught up on cards. Visa and Mastercard are taken almost everywhere, contactless is normal, and Apple Pay and Google Pay work at most terminals; Amex is patchier, so keep it as a backup. Since 2022, Italian businesses are legally required to accept card payments, even for small amounts, so if a place claims its machine is broken, it is not your job to go find cash.

That said, cash still smooths daily life. Carry 50 to 100 euros in small notes and coins for the coperto cover charge, an espresso at the bar, market stalls, small family trattorie, tips and a church donation box. Remember that 1 and 2 euros are coins, not notes, and they add up, so a small coin stash is genuinely useful.

When a card terminal or a Bancomat asks whether to charge in dollars or euros, always choose euros. Choosing dollars triggers dynamic currency conversion at a rate about 3 to 8% worse than your own bank's. At an Italian bank ATM the prompt is worded con conversione or senza conversione, so pick senza conversione, without conversion.

The machines to avoid are the bright blue Euronet ATMs clustered at tourist sites in Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan. They charge the most and push the dollar conversion hardest. Use a Bancomat attached to a bank branch, Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, BNL or BancoPosta, and read the on-screen fee before you confirm.

Use bank ATMs during the day, ideally the machines inside or beside a branch, which are better lit and less prone to skimming. Use a debit card rather than a credit card, since a credit-card withdrawal is a cash advance with a fee and interest from day one, and bring a no-foreign-fee card plus a backup on a different network.

For a rough sense of scale, two mid-range travelers might pull 300 to 400 euros of day-to-day cash across a week beyond the hotel, in a couple of ATM visits, with cards covering the rest. Withdraw a few days' worth at a time to limit per-visit fees, and keep cash out of sight in crowds.

Read the restaurant bill before you tip. Most sit-down places add a coperto, a per-person cover charge commonly 2 to 3 euros, and a few tourist spots add a separate servizio service charge. Neither is a tip and neither is a scam. Tipping in Italy is light, with no US-style percentage to add; the detail is in tipping in Italy.

Separately, Italy's per-night city tax (the tassa di soggiorno) is almost never in your room rate and is usually collected at the hotel, often in cash. What each city charges, plus the separate Venice access fee, is in Italy's tourist tax. For the wider picture, see the Italy money guide.

Common questions

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More on Italy

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