Parking ticket in Milan, Italy

This is normal, ticket will follow.
The police contact the registered owner of the vehicle (the rental company) and they provide the driver's name and address (you) and charge you for the work involved. All detailed in the small print of your rental agreement which you of course read every word of.

The police now have a certain time to send you the ticket.
Are you sure it was a parking ticket? The police do not tell the rental company what type of ticket it was, just car registration number, date, time and location. It could be speeding, or ZTL (restricted traffic zone) infringement, or jumping a red light, or others. All recorded automatically by camera, you do not need to be stopped at the time.

Indeed, normal and in fact common (people come here regularly to complain about such things). It's possible this may just be the first of multiple items, if you happened to be caught committing multiple violations. Stay tuned and watch your mail.

I would challenge the charge from Avis until you see a ticket. Many franchises of car rental companies like Avis are known to say they are charging for tickets or claim to be processing ticket information. This for additional revenue, but they cannot produce proof. I know two people that have experienced this and successfully challenged the charge. Most people just pay it because it is a small amount under $50.00. Your choice obviously.

We need a separate forum on people being ticketed; Speed Traps, ZTLs, parking etc... And then maybe a discussion that balances why having a car rental is sometimes a bad idea. Rick has become, more and more an advocate of car rentals. Of coarse he has been traveling so much that all these issues are something he completely knows how to navigate: We don't. And when you see Rick on any road, in the car he has rented, some of this isn't real: Its a bit staged at 7am, and always there is no other traffic. When you rent a car, you are no longer on, "Vacation." You are responsible for that Chunk of Metal.

To me, the exploration of the public trans systems, is a highlight when in Europe, cause its so much better than in the US, and in a sense, its a political act. They have made this infrastructure, at great cost, and we should use it, and not just rent cars as a first option. We have rented personal vehicles, but those are motorcycles. Way more expensive than a car, but you are free of all the restrictions. Park is easy- free, and ZTLs don't apply. :)

I doubt it’s a parking violation. Parking tickets are placed by a human on your windshield under the wiper. Unless of course you threw it away thinking it was some kind of advertising. Since it happened in Milan, it is likely that you entered the Area C (Congestion charge zone) without paying the congestion charge.

I agree that driving a car in a city is not wise unless one knows what is doing, and most Americans don’t bother to educate themselves about driving in foreign countries where different traffic rules may apply..

Yes Roberto is right, it must be an Area C fine.

but they cannot produce proof.

Of course they can, they receive a registered mail from the cops saying: "pay or tell us who was driving this car on that day. You have 60 days to do either one".

Since it's Italian cops writing to an Italian company, the letter is written in Italian: I bet it's not the proof you want them to produce.

You’re supposed to pay €5 to enter the downtown area of Milan (Area C) during business hours, I'm guessing you didn't and they have a time and date stamped pic of the car you were driving in that area, hence the fine.

It may well be also a parking ticket. Most parking places in Milan are now reserved to residents or are paid parking.

If it was a parking ticket they would have found a notification on the windshield.