As an sidenote rant-

Your credit card number/info/magnetic stripe is more likely to stolen/copied/cloned when you pay at a restaurant and the server walks away with your card as your sit at your table paying the check. This is the most common way card info is stolen, at least according to the credit card companies when it happened to one of our corporate cards.

Due to built in security checks on some cards I have had sales not go through even with ID. I have lived (and still do a couple months a year) in a tri border region where I can buy things in three countries via credit with in an hour, then go to a US base and use a card on a machine that will register in the NY/NJ area via Europe, and then go online and purchase tickets/items from another location. As both a pilot and frequent flyer I can buy things within hours which can also trip the fraud alert. I have had to call and turn off my fraud protection otherwise the companies tell me "I can't be in two places" at once, to which I saw with the internet I can buy things on 5 continents in ten minutes but such is lost on the feckless phone trolls that answer these things.

My final solution, cash.. Okay rant over.

and yes to the poster earlier, in Italy your passport or Carta di Identita' will be kept and or copied when you check in. Germany, Belguim and The Netherlands have also done the same. France and Spain have not for me

Ciao,
FH