LIFE: Easy Money

SARONNO, Italy - A little more than a year ago, when my best friend was planning her first trip to Italy, her advisor at the local Triple A office tried to sell her travelers checks. “Not a good idea,” I said. “Nobody uses traveler’s checks any more, I don’t even think the banks know what they are.”

 Euros come in all colors and sizes

So she went back to Triple A and told her trip advisor what I had said. The trip advisor then tried to sell her a “euro” pack. A fixed amount of euros, I don’t remember the exact value, at a truly terrible exchange rate with an added Triple A service charge.  When I told her not to buy it, my friend started to suspect my advice.  

 Unicredit is one of Italy's largest banks

I find it hard to believe that U.S. travel agents, Triple A included, don’t know that you can use ATM cards, or a debit or credit cards in Italy to get cash as easily as you can in your own neighborhood, but maybe they don’t.  In my opinion, they are in the business of making money, selling travelers checks and euro packs earns them a nice profit. There isn’t even a language barrier as the international ATM machines have the capability to provide instructions in English. 

It’s easy. You simply put in your American bank card, punch in your password, choose how many euros you want,  and out they come. The only charge, and this is true for Italian banks, is the fee charged by the American bank you are accessing. There is no charge for the service on the Italian side.  It’s that easy, or as my friend Gary says, it’s too easy. Just don’t ask for an ATM machine, especially in Milan where ATM is the public transportation system. You get money from the Bancomat.   

Bancomat at Intesa/San Paolo Bank

Apparently Triple A isn’t the only one who doesn’t know this. A recent article in the NY Times on using American credit cards in Europe prompted a bevy of responses from readers recounting their bad experiences. http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/travel/credit-card-problems-abroad-readers-respond.html?hpw Some complained about their cards not working at toll booths and ticket machines in the train stations, while others encountered “technological glitches” outside of the major metropolitan areas. 

There were as many suggested solutions as there were problems, including one man who went through the trouble of opening a bank account in Italy so he would have cash on hand when he traveled here. The truth is, there is no need to go through all that trouble for there is a very, and I mean very, simple solution.

 Swiss franc

I don’t use my American card to pay for purchases very often so my experience in that area is somewhat limited, but earlier this year when I was buying my daughter a new winter coat the clerk asked me if I wanted the transaction in dollars or euros. It might have been because we were in Milan and the store was Max Mara, but that was the first time I had that experience in Italy. When she gave me the receipt it showed the total amount spent in dollars and euros. There was a time when I only saw double currency receipts like that in Switzerland.   

Switzerland’s currency is the Swiss franc and they, like England where they still use pounds and pence, never switched to euros. Most of the time the exchange rate between Swiss francs and euros is favorable and with the retail exchange rates competitive with currency exchange facilities, I don’t bother changing money at the train station any more. It’s easier to just pay for my purchases in euros. The only drawback is that your change is in Swiss francs. To avoid coming home with a pocket full of heavy Swiss coins, I carry low denomination euros, nothing over 50 euro bills.  

Shopping in nearby Lugano

You have to give it to the Swiss, they are so accommodating they will even let you use both euros and Swiss francs for the same transaction if you want. It makes no difference to them and all the cash registers show the amount of purchase in both currencies. It’s one of the reasons why I love them. They understand money is money, no matter what color it is. Unfortunately it makes spending it a whole lot easier.

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LIFE: Out of the Kindness

SARONNO, Italy - The first real work I had when I first moved to Italy was in Genoa teaching English at a small private language school. I was being paid under the table (in nero) which meant that sometimes when I would come into the school one of the owners would put her finger on her lips, a warning for me not to say anything. It meant the Guardia di Finance, or fiscal police, were in inspecting the books. They knew schools hired illegals, especially English mother-tongue illegals, all the time and they paid off the books.

I knew I was not being paid what Italian teachers, or foreigners who were here legally, were paid but I didn’t complain. I was happy to have a job after not working for nearly six months.

So with the little bit of money I was earning I started putting together my Italian life. I was living in a furnished apartment about half an hour out of Genoa in a borgo called Santa Maria Quezzi, (see January 31, 2010 blog).

Another Beautiful Ginori Design

With no car, my only means of transport to and from the city was the No. 15 bus. I would get off on Via XX Settembre, Genoa’s main street, and walk the few blocks to the language school passing a rather posh china and gift shop along the way. They had the most beautiful things in that store and I remember standing and staring in the window and wondering if I would ever be able to afford anything in there.

January and July are the State designated sales periods here in Italy and so shortly after Christmas my favorite shop filled their window with all the bits and bobs they were willing to part with at a discounted price. That’s when I saw them – the gold rimmed Richard Ginori plates with the small roses. I loved them.

Every day on my way to work I would stop and stand with my nose pressed against the glass and look at them, dreaming about how they would look on my dinner table. I had no idea how much they really cost for I had yet to figure out the value of lire to dollars and vice versa. If a newspaper cost 1,000 lire, and a cup of coffee cost 1,500, how many thousands, or even millions of lire would the dishes cost? And how much was that in real money? Dealing with such high numbers was not only confusing, it was downright overwhelming.

My Beautiful Dishes

Then one day, fearful the plates would be snapped up and gone forever, I gathered my courage and went in. In my halting Italian I told the young clerk I wanted six of the Richard Ginori plates in the window. She knew immediately which ones I was talking about.

“There are only ten plates left,” she said. “Why don’t you take them all?”
“I wish I could,” I said, “but I am a poor English teacher and I don’t have enough money to buy them all.”

I knew that Richard Ginori was one of the oldest porcelain manufacturers in Italy, founded in 1735 by the Florentine Marquis Carlo Ginori. The early pieces he made were primarily destined for the court of the Medici family, the godfathers of the Florentine Renaissance, so whatever they cost, it was surely more than I could afford. As it was I was convinced I would have to eat bread and onions for a month just to pay for the six plates I asked for.

The cups that go with my dishes

The clerk nodded. She went to the window, took the plates out and then disappeared into the back room. A few minutes later she reappeared with a package all done up in brown paper and tied with heavy string. She put it on the counter and rang up the sale. I don’t remember what I paid for those plates, now that we’ve converted to Euros it’s hard to remember what things costs back in the day of the lira, but it seemed like an awful lot of money.

I carried the package to school that night and it wasn’t until the next morning that I opened it. She had given me all ten plates.

What a sweet beginning to my Italian life. I’ve been very lucky these past twenty years, I’ve met a lot of nice people who have gone out of their way to help a stranger. Every time I use those beautiful dishes I think about that young girl in Genoa and I hope that in some small way I am able to pass that kindness on.

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