A Fine Evening in Genoa
Visitors to Genoa’s old port area could be in for a little surprise, for the city’s authorities are cracking down on drinking in the street.
This summer I spent some time down in Genoa and stayed in my friend Mauro’s appartment which overlooks Genoa’s attractive and relatively recently refurbished former dock area.
This zone has many bars, restaurants, Genoa’s famous aquarium, shops, and other attractions. It certainly manages to draw the crowds who stroll round during the evenings at most times of the year, often stopping off for a drink or a meal in one of the area’s restaurants.
However, despite the outwardly relaxed atmosphere, there is something tourists need to watch out for. Read more
Back in a Week or So
Blog from Italy is going on a short holiday, but normal service will be resumed towards the end of August.
In the meantime, if you are not on holiday yourself, why not have a dig around Blog from Italy. You should find one or two posts interesting, and please leave comments. I’ll reply once I’m up and running again.
All the best - and have a great holiday, if you are lucky enough not to be working in August.
As always, thanks for reading,
Alex Roe
How to Avoid Fines while Staying in Italy this Summer
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 190 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.
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.
However, many 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.
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.
If you want to be doubly sure, then pop into a local tourist information office and ask about this.
Hope that helps, and I stop receiving so many comments, as a result!
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