I am sure its a very important discussion for anyone
deciding to move there or to even visit since the exchange rate is not good for most countries.
my family and i travel to italy at least once an year to visit our family and to also continue our
small steps to move back over. we lose almost 30 cents per dollar and that is not including any
extra charges for the transaction itself. we find ourselves in a better situation than most others because we stay with family and eat our dinners for free. but we are afraid that when we move
over we will lose 30% of all the money we have worked so hard to save. every time we travel over
we hear the same complaint from other travellers about not having enough money to spend because they lost too much money when they exchanged. why did italy change over to the euro? one of
italys largest money-makers is tourism, so why create a situation were tourists are spending less money? our own family and friends who have lived in italy their whole lives oppose the euro and
wish very much to change back. if anyone knows a way to save more money when i exchange it
would be very much appreciated or may have any news about if the euro is going to be an infinite
thing or if there are current plans to change it. note: certain unnamed countries in europe are
making almost 50 euro cents when they change over their currency and live and travel like royalty
in italy. i find this very uncool considering that most of these countries were the ones whom pushed for the euro, but then opted not to change their own currency. a little suspicious...............yes.

The fact that the Euro has increased around 30% against the dollar over the past few years has nothing to do with the Italian government. It is probably more a question of a weak dollar and the Bush administration's lack of control over monetary policy rather than anything the European Bankocrats are doing right. If Italy had stayed with the lire it would probably have increased against the dollar anyway and you'd certainly still have had the same costs to change your greenbacks into zillions of lire. Fact is that swapping to the Euro has saved the Italian state billions in terms of the lower interest rates on its crippling public debt and if the country loses a few low rent tourists, well - WTF.

In 1990 Italy paid the lire equivalent of Euro 72 billion on Euro 663 billion's worth of debt. In 2005 the government debt whad increased two and half times as over 1.5 billion but, thanks to the Euro and the discipline of the Maastricht parameters, the interest cost was "only" Euro 65 billion.

Currency exchange rates are set by the market, not by government, as that hopeless loser, Brit Chancellor Norman Lamont found to his cost when the massive force of the market forced the UK out of the European monetary system. The only way that you are going to avoid currency risk is if the Italian government decides to adopt the dollar - not a very likely scenario when the Yanks can't even build an airbase where they want on Italian soil, without the communists going ballistic.

I thought this was a friendly forum to help people who have problems and questions not call them names and insult them. Dispite your vulgar language (WT*) I will respond. First off we are not low rent tourists and there are many other Italian-Americans in the same boat as us. I am referring to having to take care of a eldery parent still living in Italy and having much trouble doing this from the states. My husband is a dual citizen and was raise for much of his life in Italy. We also lived over there in 1998 but were not able to have our own home, car or a job so we came back to save money to go back the proper way but it has taken us longer due to the fact we have had two children since then. I have never blamed Italy for the exchange rate, my only question was why change your money but not the pensions, salarys, home cost or cost of living etc. to equal out with the exchange. I'm not to familiar with city living there but I can say it is ruff in the small villages. We don't expect to have the monetary exchange to be equal but when your in our situation 30% cut is alot. This also causes problems when we wire money to his mother and she loses 30% of what we sent to her. I can say I am happy your not affected by the change, but many people are. I know the monetary change has helped the debt, caused by bad politics, but every change has its' bad side affects and tweeking it to correct these problems is needed to help people breathe easier don't you think? So now you know my husband and I are not some winey tourist, we are people with real issues. Have a wonderful day

The euro is a huge topic and difficult to discuss in this format. You could fill books (and some people do) on its implications for the short term , people, nations, the world etc. Exchange rates is just as big a topic.

Right now the dollar is weak through a number of issues. The war, the housing value issues, concerns on the US job market, etc. The dollar rate is actually bad for Italian tourism as it makes travel in Europe very expensive. Its also bad for people selling to the US as their products will now be much more expensive. etc. But US companies can currently sell to Europe at reduced rates/increased profits.......swings and roundabouts.

As for the euro. The idea was great as it put Italy's finances under a degree of control. The problem is that the EU did not include house prices in the inflation figures. If it did, then it would have had to increase interest rates to curb inflation. This would also have controlled some of the rises in other costs. The cost of eating a pizza for instance.

One of the aspects that should have arrived with the euro was a degree of prosperity. The EU were offering grants of up to 50%, but it seems that this opportunity was missed. These funds have not boosted business.

So instead, most employees have seen little increase in salary since the euro but increase in costs across the board. So for many Italians the Euro is seen as bad news. Another issue for the average Italian is that other EU citizens may now arrive freely and seek work at lower rates.

But again, life and economics is never so simple. What we should have seen is Italy making itself more friendly to foreign investment and new businesses. This would create jobs, more jobs = improved salaries, then the balance restores itself. But I am still watching and waiting.

One reason that the failings were not dealt with was that the former Italian Prime Minister owned half the media (which is illegal for many other nations). If the government had received continous attacks in the press it may have been forced to take action. Thats spilt milk, but I wish the EU would make it illegal for political candidates to own the media ever again.

BTW, I predict that 1) as international banks take over the italian banks they will apply pressure to make reforms. 2) Costs will stop rising by the same %.

My biggest concern for the Italian economy is terrorism.