Changing Money In Italy

I made a trip to Italy right before they switched over to the Euro so I had a pocket full of Lira that I wanted to change out when I was returning home. Typically, the currency exchanges won't take coins, but they would do that at the Rome airport. I was heading to London for a couple of days and wanted to change my lira to Pounds. Unfortunately, they only had 50 pound notes (at that time about $80). I got out all the Lira I could find and counted it out. I was a few hundred Lira short so I couldn't get the money changed there. When I got to London, of course they wouldn't take any of the coins and I had enough paper money to get only 20 pounds. That was enough for the bus ride to and from my hotel and a liter of Bombay Sapphire Gin (with 5p left over!) so that worked out well.

The first laundry day after my return home, I checked the pockets of my pants. In the little "watch pocket" of the pants I was wearing on the my travel day was a 1000 lira note...I wish I had found that earlier!

I still have all those coins, maybe I will drop them in one of those donation boxes I have seen in European airports...maybe they can do something with them :-)