Taxi drivers

pretty broad question - how many people, where - what city - are you considering? Or will you be touring all over Italy?

Sort of like saying you've heard stories about USA taxis. Peoria or Washington?

I, personally, have not had any issues with taxi drivers in Italy since I had to pay in lira but I understand that others have not been so lucky. The industry is fairly well regulated and getting a white taxi at the official taxi stand or using one of the many apps (check with app is used in which town) has worked out well for me and many others. (There is an understood additional charge to calling a cab to you whether it's from the hotel or an app.) There are taxi stands outside every train station and airport and generally scattered around larger cities.

Taxis are required to accept credit cards but they prefer not to so if you want or need to use a credit card confirm that the credit card machine "is working" before you leave. In my recent experience taxi drivers are so much happier to have cash that they have been willing to wave part of the fare when you pay cash. I took a ride that was 21.20e and I handed the driver a twenty and was fishing for my change and he just said "Okay!" and hopped out and started getting the bags. Because I'm an American I handed him a couple of euros in addition - fare plus a tiny rounded up tip because he handled the bags on both ends - but he seemed unconcerned about getting the rest of fare.

Some people say that asking for a final receipt - ricevuta ree-cha-voota - when you get in the cab keeps drivers on their toes because it means their driver number is on the receipt and this is usually a businessman move and they are serious about money. Even if your cab driver doesn't really speak english the needs of payment and receipts is well understood.

I always have the address written down because while my Italian is okay sometimes details really matter. And as with many things in Italy the further north you are in the country generally the more predictable things are.

Don't let generalized anxiety make you sweat the small details too much, have a great trip,
=Tod

Have had mixed experiences with taxi drivers. Two were excellent in Vienna, but two were as shonky as they came. One refused to turn on the metre and the other was outright sketchy. Same in Rome. No problems with taxi driver from train station. Professional and used metre. Not so the one from the Vatican who said it was a fixed rate due to the rain. He drove like a maniac and ended up pulling over and kicking us out after my sister asked him to slow down. Taxi driver to and from train station in Florence were great. I think it is luck of the draw when it comes to taxis.

Hi Judy, I go to Italy yearly and use a couple of taxis per trip. I haven’t had any integrity issues. I only use a taxi from the official stand at train stations. Recently at Bari, as an example, I asked how much it would cost (in Italian) before I got into the car. I have a printed paper that I hand them the address where I want to go.

If I need a taxi from my hotel to the train station (I much prefer to walk or take the metro), I ask the hotel to call one for me.

I can’t give examples of credit card usage issues because taxis & public toilets are the two categories where I always pay with cash.

If you’d like to experience “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride”, take a taxi from Rome to the airport very early in the morning! LOL! I stay out at an airport hotel my last night now. : )

Taxi drivers in Italy are not employees but entrepreneurs owners of car and taxi license. The current Italian tax law permits small companies to pay a low flat income tax rate of 15% (instead of the progressive 23%, 35%, 43%) if their annual revenue receipts are less then 85,000€. In order to stay under that threshold taxi drivers try to maximize their cash receipts, rather than card receipts, because cash transactions are not traceable and they don’t report those to the tax man, so that they achieve the goal of staying under the 85,000€ threshold. So they will certainly prefer that you pay them in cash and occasionally they may pretend that their POS machine is temporarily out of order to convince you to shell out hard cash. The largest amount of fare will probably be from the airport to the hotel (for example Rome airport to city center is an all inclusive flat 55€), and viceversa, so if you want to pay cash confirm with the driver that you need to pay with a card because you don’t have enough cash. If you want to do them a favor and pay cash you can do so for short trips within the city, which usually cost less than 15€.

The meter is not used for trips where the City imposes a flat rate (generally from/to airports), but otherwise, within the city, I’ve never had the experience of taxicabs not using the meter.