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Austerity in Europe: What to Expect with Summer Travel in the EU

Locations in this article:  Athens, Greece Madrid, Spain Philadelphia, PA Rome, Italy

Credit: Lapislazzuli196

More than solely increasing the price of service, the Italian government has also structurally altered its transportation system during the last year when it deregulated the historically guild-controlled profession of taxi driving. This has increased the number of drivers and forced larger taxi chains to lower their fare costs.

Sandra Bortillo, a desk attendant at  The Condotti Palace in Rome, said she prefers taking a private car or shuttle as opposed to taking a taxi.

“The best to take is the private cab, because it includes the luggage, and the price is fixed,” she said. “By taxi, the price deepens by the traffic.”

To assuage the need for using a taxi service, The Condotti Palace provides a private shuttle service to get guests to and from the airport for a fixed price. This is fairly common among certain Italian hotels.

Cindy Tacci of The Travelsmiths said her company doesn’t typically deal with public taxis in Italy either.
“Often, we try to avoid a taxi situation with main transfers from the airport to the hotel,” she said. “We have trusted transfer services that are prepaid, the price is already negotiated, and so the client is not put in a position where there may be a discrepancy in a payment of something like that.”

 

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