It depends. My bank here in the US, Chase, charged me 5% over the spot price to purchase euros here in Dallas. So, I only got a few euros from them before I left for our trip - just to have when we landed.

If you use an ATM in Italy (what most people recommend), your US bank is going to charge you something - probably 3% - and there will also be a transaction fee (like $3, or so) from the owner of the ATM machine. You can call your bank now and ask them what % they charge.

Whatever you do, don't go to a "money exchange" business at an airport. They charge, by far, the most. They are a total ripoff.

I actually looked around for a bank that would charge less than Chase and found one that charged 1%. So, I opened an account with them (USAA) just for my trip.

The same thing applies for credit card purchases. Credit card companies usually charge 3%. You should call your credit card company and ask them what they charge. Capital One actually does not charge anything for its card so I got a Capital One credit card just for our trip.

In Italy, the bank that owns the ATM does not charge for its use. The Visa/Mastercard network charges 1% on top of the official inter-bank exchange rate, and your home bank may or may not add charges.

Anywhere that changes notes will typically add a fee of 7% or 8% onto the official exchange rate.

The ATM is king, and despite the fees you pay, it's still the best deal. The problem is that banks limit what you can take,often to as little as $250-300 per day, which doesn't get you far in places like Venice and Florence. Call your bank and alert them that the card will be used in Italy so their fraud detection software doesn't freeze it. Also, ask them to increase your allowance to $500 per day. If you have 2 ATM cards on different accounts, use them both.Make sure you have a few euros in your pocket when you land, even if this means biting the bullet and letting an airport service rip you off. I always refused to pay airport prices, withdrawing money at the airport ATM when I landed. That worked well many times until I landed in Milan and all the ATMs were down.Good luck...

Just withdraw the money out of the ATM just notify your bank you will be oversees and find out the fees. Once you complete that you should be fine.