How to Avoid Fines while Staying in Italy
If you are coming to Italy this summer, and have booked into a hotel in the central area of an Italian city, such as Florence or Pisa, and you are coming by car, either your own or a hire car, then watch out!
As is evidenced by all the 200 odd comments on my Speeding and other Traffic Fines in Italy post, it is easy to fall foul of the, by now, infamous Zona Traffico Limitato, ZTL or Restricted Traffic Zones which exist in many Italian cities. The net result is often a registered/recorded delivery letter announcing a fine, which is often difficult to contest and to settle.
Advise Your Hotel
Well, in order to avoid this awkward, but seemingly common, little problem, what you need to do is to advise the hotel where you are staying that you have come by car, provide the staff with the car licence plate/registration number and ask them, politely, to inform the local traffic police of your stay.
Insisting on having a copy of documentary proof which shows that the hotel has indeed told the police about your car would not be a bad idea either.
Technically, Italian hotels are obliged to tell the police about your car, and Italian local traffic laws often make provisions which allow registered vehicles to be exempted from the payment of fines relating to entry into these honey trap limited traffic zones. This means that when (not ‘if’!) your car is photographed by the street cameras while in a ZTL, it will be seen to be on the right list, and you will not be sent, a year or so later, a fine.
Note that Italy’s traffic cops can apparently issue a fine without stopping you. All they have to do is see your car in the wrong area.
Many foreign hotel guests do not know about these nasty ZTLs and thus do not tell the hotels about their cars. Now you know, so you should not make the same mistake.
If you have requested that your hotel notify the local traffic authorities of the existence of your car, and you still receive a fine, you can then write back, in English, enclosing a copy of the document your hotel should have provided you with, and point out that your vehicle had been registered with the police in the area.
Invalids Can Annul Fines
You may also like to note that if one of your travelling companions has a registered disability, then this too can be grounds for annulling these pesky fines.
Use the Local Tourist Information Office
If you want to be doubly sure, then pop into a local tourist information office and ask about this. You should find someone who speaks English. ‘Multa’ in Italian = Fine.
Hope that helps, and you stop being fined and I stop receiving so many comments, as a result!
About to get my first taste of the Italian legal system
I was half expecting this. I’ve been called to appear as a witness in a case in Milan’s courts. I won’t say any more at the moment, because I’m not sure I can.
I’m a wee bit concerned, not about appearing in court - done it before, a long time ago in the UK, as a form of expert witness. But what worries me is that it can be difficult to keep up with hearing re-schedulings here, or so I have heard from a friend of mine, although he was talking about the Courts in Genova.
Apparently if you don’t turn up on the right day they fine you, around €1000-00, and that could be on top of the day’s income I’ll lose. Ho hum.
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