For those of you traveling and driving in Rome, new parking laws are coming next month. It will be interesting to see how locals handle this change!
Rome’s city council has announced new parking rules to go into effect mid-September that will see the reintroduction of paid parking as well as changes in rules regarding free parking. The new rules stipulate that 80 per cent of parking spots in what is known as the ZTL (zona di traffico limitato) will be paid parking and will cost €1.20 an hour instead of the present €1. The remaining 20 per cent of parking space will be free, mainly for residential parking. In all other zones the percentage of pay areas to free areas will be 50/50 and cost €1 an hour.
The new regulations have been drawn up partly in response to the crisis at the end of May which led to the suspension of paid parking (the spots designated by the “strisce blu”) in many areas throughout the city.
The novelties of the new system, which will be introduced for an experimental period of six months in September, include: free parking in front of hospitals (maximum three hours); free parking for hybrid and electric cars; parking areas for a quick stops the so-called “sosta breve” or “pausa caffè” (20 cents for 15 minutes): discounts for longer parking periods, excluding the ZTL (a daily subscription of €4 for eight hours continuous parking and a monthly subscription of €70): courtesy zones for pregnant women and mothers with children up to one year old; more spaces for motor bikes and mopeds.