Handicap North American decal

This has come up before on the board and the general consensus is that US disabled driver badges are NOT legally recognised in Europe. Try searching on google with site:ricksteves.com to find more threads.

We used my Handicapped "hanger" in France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Austria and it was never a problem. (Maybe we were lucky). The US ones have your driver's license number on them so make sure you have your driver's license with you in case you needed proof that it was yours. (I was always the passenger, never the driver.)

RGMCM3

I would suggest you check out gimponthego(dot)com. It is the most comprehensive website covering disability and travel.

My mother in law swears by it.

Good luck!

Where are you planning to drive? Most Italian cities have Permit Only Driving in the historic centers, ZTL's. Enforcement is totally by robocams. If they don't pick-up the official municipal permit sticker on the windshield, a ticket is automatically generated and can take up to a year to reach you at home. In the meantime, your rental car agency will ding the credit card you used to rent the car for a 50 EUR or so service fee for providing your information to the authorities. So be careful. You might be able to avoid parking tickets, but not the ZTL fines.

We've traveled in France & Italy with a Canadian Handicap card; prior to departing, I emailed their respective Consulates and yes we could & did use them and didn't have any problems....
Jean

Sam gave you the right advice.

If you put your decal on the dashboard, that will probably be recognized if you park in a disabled parking stall outside the ZTL. I'm sure any policeman will let you park with your North American decal, even if issued from a foreign jurisdiction.

But it's a totally different matter if you enter a ZTL (limited traffic zone), basically inside the city center. Having a decal is not enough, because the cameras take photos of the license plate and don't see the decal.

My cousin, who is a resident inside Florence ZTL and has a permanent disabled license, can enter anywhere in the ZTL, but she had to request a special 'permanente' disabled permit from the City of Florence, which sent her a remote electronic transponder that sends a signal to the cameras that she can enter.

A disabled driver who needs to enter only temporarily the Florence ZTL (or the ZTL of any city) may also do so, but s/he has to request special permission in advance. At that point the City of Florence will place the vehicle's license plate number in a special "White List" for the day you intend to enter the ZTL, and a fine will not be issued (even though the photo will be taken by the robocamera).

Each city has its own procedure to permit temporary access to disabled drivers, the one linked below is for Florence. Any other city will have its own, probably similar, process.

http://www.serviziallastrada.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=43&Itemid=203&lang=it
This is the form you need to email or fax to obtain the temporary placement in the 'White List'. I think it will ask you to send a scanned copy of your disabled decal with your request.
http://www.serviziallastrada.it/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=259&func=fileinfo&id=141&lang=it

Do not enter a ZTL without having a permit first. The robocameras don't see the decals. They ruthlessly take photos of all cars entering (unless you are a resident with transponder). The fines are issued automatically to any car that is not placed in the 'White List' first.