Visa gift cards

read the terms and conditions REALLY carefully.

It will vary from card to card but many (most??) are not valid overseas and charge a significant fee both to load with money and to withdraw money from them.

Buyer beware - if you search the Forums you will find quite a few stories.

Are the other people in your party unable to get their own debit or credit card? As Nigel noted the terms for prepaid cards are generally very unfavorable for just about everything.

You might consider whether you can add a card to an existing account. On a trip with my nephew, I was able to get a Capitol One visa card linked to my account - it has a separate number but is paid through my main account. Easily tracked his spending (and he paid me back).

My father-in-law gives my husband one of these for his birthday each year and even using them in the US they can be hit or miss. I wouldn't even think of chancing it abroad.

I’m in Italy right now and have a prepaid visa gift card. It’s a reloadable one with funds deposited each month. I haven’t been able to use it anywhere because it doesn’t have a chip. One merchant I spoke with yesterday said these types of cards never work in his shop. Since it’s just a bonus card for me and I’m not relying on it to pay for anything I’m okay. I have other cards I can use. Hope this bit of info helps.

Thank you everyone! I think we will not try it.

Wise. Check out some of the posts here, or online, about WISE prepaid cards. They also offer bank transfers, but do also do cards. This link defaults to my Canadian site, but it should get you going. https://wise.com/ca/card/ they offer various currencies, so euros would be good.
I suggest also posting a question on Italy Tripadvisor forum about the success rate of use there as well. It will provide that expanded audience and experience.