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Old March 26th, 2015, 11:25 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Athel Cornish-Bowden
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Posts: 28
Default large cash hotel payment

On 2015-02-09 15:23:50 +0000, marc4ucb said:

I will be staying in a hotel inFlorence that wants payment in cash on
arrival. This hotel is highly recommended in Rick Steves and Lonely
Planet. On a normal stay this would be no problem. But I will be
staying ten days. This will be more than 1,120 Euros. Arriving with
this much cash is not simple. ATMs have much lower limits. The only
way I can think of is to get the cash at bank in the US before I leave
and carry it with me. Of course that means paying pretty steep fees
to a bank in the US. Also, most banks around me do not have
international currency exchanges. I will need to drive 35 miles to a
near by city. I am also not thrilled about carrying that much cash on
me.
Does anyone have some suggestions?


I'm coming late to the party on this one, so maybe everyone else has gone home.

However, apart from agreeing with all that has been said I would like
to add that changing cash in Italy can be complicated, though it may be
better today than it was 25 years ago when my wife and I wanted to
change a not particularly large amount of dollars (about 50, probably)
into lire. We went to a bank in Cremona thinking it would be a matter
of five minutes, but it took about three hours. The cashier couldn't
understand why people who weren't American and didn't live in the US
would want to change dollars into lire. I didn't think that was any of
his business, but I refrained from saying so. Anyway, this was at
around 11.30 and he said he would need to consiult his superior, so we
should come back after lunch. We hadn't planned to have our lunch in
Cremona, as we had a long way further to go that day, but we did
anyway, and had what were probably the best gnocchi we've ever eaten --
eating in Italy is often a more rewarding experience than visiting
banks.


--
athel