I will be travelling to Italy in June and would like to use my ATM card to withdraw euros. I have read all the previous posts regarding withdrawing of cash from ATMs in Italy and there is quite a range of experience! Many have no problems at all, while others find it exceedingly difficult to find an ATM machine that works with their card. The variety of experiences seem to be in part due to differences in the type of card (VISA, MC) and the network (Cirrus, PLUS, STAR, etc.) I've read a couple of posts that said that ATM machines belonging to the STAR network are difficult to find in Italy and then was dismayed to find out that that is the only logo on the back of my MC ATM card. So, my long-winded question is, if I get a second ATM card to use for my trip, which network should I choose? Is Cirrus or PLUS more common? I will be in Venice, Florence, and various smaller towns in Tuscany.

I am particularly worried about getting euros when I land in Venice. The Marco Polo airport website shows a Banca Di Roma Bancomat - does anyone know what network this bank belongs to? Are there other ATM machines at the airport? I would hate to be stuck at the airport with no euros so I want to make sure that I get an ATM card that will work at the airport and most other locales!! Several years ago, on the way to Paris, I withdrew euros from an ATM machine in the Frankfurt airport on a stopover. This might also be an option, however, my layover isn't very long and if the flight from the US is delayed, I may not have time to wander around looking for an ATM machine.

Thanks in advance for your help!

We were in Venice, Umbria, Tuscany, and Rome in mid September 2005... we used an ATM card that was part of PLUS & Interlink networks... we only took one card .. and had absolutely no problems using it at the Vencice airport ... or anywhere else. Have fun!

ML,

Please read my blog posting titled, " Info about ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) in Italy". It should answer most of your questions. If you have any others, please reply to this posting and either I or someone in this forum will give you an answer. My wife and I have used ATMs to withdraw cash all over Italy, France and Germany and have had no problems.

I just did a search for airport ATMs using several of the links provided by 2italy2 (Ben) in his blog. According to those search sites, there are NO AIRPORT ATMS ANYWHERE IN ITALY FOR VISA/PLUS, which is what we have for the bank debit card we were planning to use. Does anyone know if this is correct? According to those same search sites, there are plenty of PLUS/VISA machines in the city of Venice itself, however. We, too, are arriving in Venice (directly from NY, with no layover) and had planned to get Euros at the airport. We do have credit cards that are on the cirrhus network, but really don't want to do cash advances on those that will start accruing interest. One option might be to send an extra amount of money to the credit card company with the cirrhus option when we pay our next bill, that will be available as a "credit line," so to speak, so we wouldn't have to do the cash advance.

We had a problem recently in the Toronto and Vancouver airports with no VISA/PLUS machines, and ended up having to exchange dollars at a bad rate in order to be able to take transportation from the Vancover airport into the city.

The Visa/PLUS ATM locator for airports says none, but searching by city, I remembered that the Venice airport town is Tessera. I searched for ATMs there, and it gives a result.

Most Atm's on Visa/MC will work.RR