Untold Italy · Friday, September 11, 2026
Co-host Katie Clark and guest Corinna Cook, author of The Glam Italia Guides, discuss essential pre-travel preparations for Italy. They emphasize the importance of obtaining travel credit cards with no foreign transaction fees and using debit cards with low or no international ATM fees. Additionally, they stress the necessity of having at least three months of validity remaining on passports and carrying the physical document at all times.
“The first one is get a travel credit card. Now, a travel credit card is one that is going to let you swipe that card internationally and not charge you additional fees. And they typically also have a much better exchange rate.”
“Well, as well as having a credit card, we also need to have access to cash because there's some stuff that you're going to be using cash for, very much less now than it used to be, but you do still need cash. So you want to get a debit card. But check with your bank what they charge.”
“You need to have a minimum of three months on your passport in terms of its expiry date when you are leaving Italy. So anyway, I don't like to go too close or run the gauntlet on that one. So I like to have six months on mine.”
“But these days, no, because people do get stopped by police on trains. And my team that lives in Italy have been stopped. They needed to provide their ID. And you really, it's going to ruin your holiday if you don't have it, basically.”