What to know
Spending here runs into a legal ceiling most visitors never hear about. Hand over cash at or above a set amount in one transaction and the payment itself is unlawful, for the person paying as much as for the shop.
Article 49 of Legislative Decree 231 of 2007 bars a transfer of cash between different parties at or above a threshold. That threshold has been 5,000 euro since 1 January 2023, set by Law 197 of 29 December 2022. It moved twice before. A 2,000 euro limit ran from 1 July 2020, and a 1,000 euro ceiling did take effect, for the first two months of 2022, until Law 15 of 25 February 2022 reversed it on 1 March 2022.
The ceiling applies to the transaction, not to each instalment of it. The same article treats a single payment split into amounts below the threshold as a breach where the split is artificial. The only permitted route above the line is a bank, a post office, an electronic money institution or a payment institution.
Then Italy writes a door into its own wall, and only a foreigner can use it. The Revenue Agency, the Agenzia delle Entrate, operates a derogation for retailers and travel agencies. Law 145 of 2018 put it in its present form on 1 January 2019, letting them take cash up to 15,000 euro from a buyer who is a natural person, holds no Italian citizenship and lives outside Italy. It is not automatic. The seller notifies the Agency in advance, photocopies the passport, takes a signed self-certification of citizenship and residence, and banks the money by the next working day. A shop that has not done the paperwork is back on the ordinary ceiling.
Carrying cash is governed separately, and reaches further than travellers expect. Legislative Decree 195 of 2008 has required a declaration of 10,000 euro or more since 14 December 2008, made at a customs office on the way in or out. The duty extends to journeys to and from other European Union countries as well. The customs authority, the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli, restated it in its traveller's charter of July 2025. Where nothing is declared and the excess is up to 10,000 euro, the decree's penalties, rewritten with effect from 17 January 2025, take 50 per cent of the excess plus a fine of 30 to 50 per cent.
The last charge follows the star category, not the room price. Each comune sets its own overnight levy, and Roma Capitale's tariff table has charged per person per night by category since 1 October 2023, at 6.00 euro in a three-star hotel and 10.00 euro in a five-star. Two adults staying four nights in a three-star therefore add 48.00 euro to the bill. The levy stops after ten consecutive nights in one establishment in a calendar year, and Roma Capitale's regulation, as republished in March 2024, exempts children until their tenth birthday.
Heading off with a card? Read how to choose a travel money card - including why you should always pay in the local currency, not Australian dollars.
Working out what the trip costs? Put your daily spend and trip length through the travel budget calculator, or convert a single amount with the currency converter.