Untold Italy · Friday, September 11, 2026
Corinna Cook advises listeners on the best practices for obtaining cash in Italy. She recommends avoiding street-level ATMs and currency exchange offices, as they often have poor exchange rates and hidden fees. Instead, she suggests withdrawing cash from ATMs located inside bank branches for better security and more favorable rates.
“Avoid money exchange places. When you're walking around in Italy, you'll see ATMs. When you see ATM, which is what we call them here in most of the places in America, they're called ATMs. That's actually a money exchange place that is tricking you because.”
“When you're actually in Italy, you want to pull cash from a bank, not from anything that's out on the street.”
“And I actually always do it where you have to walk inside because it's very easy to put a cloning device on an outside ATM.”
“The ATM machine is going to offer you that they'll do the conversion for you. And so you can either accept conversion or decline. And this is a flashing neon light in your brain. Decline the conversion because that is going to give them sensational exchange rates and. You terrible ones.”