Free Camping in Italy
The incidents concerning attacks on German and Dutch tourists in Italy are sweeping the world, and these appalling happenings have been handled rather insensitively by the Italian authorities, as a read of the post on Beppe Grillo’s blog will tell you.
However, something else that is perturbing is that the Italian authorities don’t appear to know their own laws.
Last night on the RAI TG1 national television news, in the process of talking about the Dutch cyclists who were attacked whilst camping outside of Italy’s capital, Rome’s new Questura (head of law and order) for the area, who is a lawyer, appeared to have revealed a suprising lack of knowledge of his own country’s laws.
What he said was that anyone has the right to do what and stop – ‘sostare’ where they want in Italy.
Now, this is not exactly correct. Indeed, free or wild camping is generally not legal in Italy, unless you obtain the permission of the landowner first. This will not be feasible for many tourists who won’t be able to speak Italian. Laws, often enacted at regional level forbid camping outside of designated areas and on beaches.
You would expect someone who purports to represent the law would know this, although it is possible that his comment was taken out of context. Maybe the laws in Italy regarding free camping have changed recently, but with the Italian authorities wishing to tighten everything up on the security front at the moment, one doubts whether this rule would have been relaxed. Of course, it is possible that Rome is one of the areas in which free camping is permitted, but if it were, there would be hoards of tourists camping all over the place, so laws to prevent this most probably exist. Perhaps an Italian lawyer can confirm or deny such a law in the Lazio region of Italy.
It has to be said that people do free camp in Italy, and that they generally have no problems, although I have heard reports of the police waking up campers in the middle of the night and telling them that this form of camping is illegal in Italy.
At times, Italy gives the impression of being a confusing country run by confused people.
How long did it take you to come to this conclusion?
I guess, after all these years here Judith, I still find it amazing how utterly crazy Italy is, and how it never seems to get any better.
Italy is a bit like a 5 year old child who never grows up.
A Peter Pan nation, possibly?
All the best,
Alex
Tell me about it…. I’ve heard conflicting stories from every police officer I have spoken to regarding the gypsies who occasionally appear on the piazza behind our house. One story is that anyone can stop for up to 48 hours on any land that is not privately-owned, provided they don’t ‘set up camp’. So a camper van can be parked with people living in it, but they can’t put up a tent or set up chairs, tables and washing lines. Then I heard that this wasn’t true – and that any form of ‘sosta’ on land which has a ‘divieto’ (the piazza does) or is privately-owned is technically unlawful BUT the police don’t have the powers to move on the offending campers. So on paper you can’t camp anywhere but nobody can do anything about it if you do.
I’d say it’s more Mickey Mouse than Peter Pan.
Emma
Oh, Emma, you should know that the law does not apply to gypsies in Italy – only to honest peaceful law abiding foreign tourists. Sometimes.
My theory is that Italians make everything so darn complex deliberately – so nobody can pin responsibility on anybody.
I’ve heard more than a few instances of Italian officials not knowing the laws they’ve supposedly created.
Yep, it’s a Mickey Pan nation!
Still like living here though, and hoping it’ll get better – one day…
Alex
In Italy there are anyway solutions for camping with few euros you get a great place.
Andrea
In Italy camping laws are disposed by each MUNICIPALITY. Hence in each town you go you can find different laws. Usually the more severe laws about camping are in touristic spots lest the area become a huge unregulated camping site.
Check out laws about camping at the Municipality website before planning your tour