Credit Cards in Italy

I didn't see "no cash" signs all over the place in Italy as I did in Norway and Sweden, but I think I saw some. I did notice most people seemed to be paying for their gelato with cash, so I followed suit. I did the same in little grocery stores if buying just one or two pieces of fruit or something like that. Otherwise, I tended to use a credit card (for the miles) unless I needed to break a bill to get coins for church light meters.

You'll almost certainly need cash if you buy transit tickets from a newsstand or tobacco shop. They don't want to eat the credit card fee on the full amount of your purchase when what they make for selling the tickets is such a small percentage of the cost.

It's still often an issue if you want to include a tip on your restaurant charge; you'll want to have some cash for that.

I have no idea about whether AmEx is more widely accepted than it used to be.

We are in Catania now. I’d say 75% of places take Amex. Not only can you use credit everywhere but street vendors, but apps like Just Eat and the Catania public transit app make purchases on your phone so easy.

Hi, I can’t give you details about an Amex card because I haven’t used one of those for many years. But Visa is widely accepted, so plan to bring it as your backup card. I was in Italy twice last year and used my Visa card for all of my hotels.

Lots of places use “tap and pay” for small amounts, so it helps if your card is enabled for that.

I’ve seen AMEX accepted at a lot of places, but, not surprisingly, Visa and MasterCard are more widely accepted. Apple Pay has become very popular, so I use it as much as I can—just easier all around.