Parking Violation in Florence

They cannot charge you after three years. They have just over a year to send you the information and demand payment. If you only paid the fee to the rental agency then you didn't pay the fine. The fee comes first followed by the fine in the mail. You may still owe the fine but it's too late for them to come after you unless they have been trying to track you down for this entire time, then they "may" still be able to come after you for this fine.
Donna

You would have paid two separate charges, one on your credit card bill for them to provide your info to police, and the actual fine which would have arrived several (or many) months later, with instructions on how to pay the fine. The latter notice would have been in Italian.

It sounds like what you think is a quadrupling of the first bill is really the cost of the actual fine.

Yes, damage to your credit is credible.

Zoe, wouldn't they need the op's SS# to damage credit? If all they have is name and address is that enough?

They should have sent a registered letter saying what article of the highway code you violated, when and where; how to pay with a 30% discount and how to appeal. More, If they made a pic of your car you have the right to see that pic and the letter should explain how.

If they can't show anything to prove you received the above letter tell them to get lost and to not be ridiculous. No italian judge would force you to pay a fine you never received after 3 years, I guess an American one would completely agree. The right to appeal can't be waived.

It sounds like a few things are involved here and need some explanation.

First, the credit card charge from your rental agency was almost for sure just an administrative fee for providing authorities with your contact information. This is standard and agreed to in the rental agreement. But some people mistakenly think it is the fine.

Next, the relevant authorities are supposed to send you the actual ticket within one year of obtaining your contact information. It sounds like that never happened. You say you never heard anything more. It's not unusual for Italian cities not to actually send the ticket for various reasons, but it seems most people get them.

Now three years later you get a what appears to be a non-payment letter with additional fees added in. Since you got this notice, the reason you didn't get the original ticket 2 years ago isn't likely because of a wrong address or move. So it seems odd and why they would finally followup after at least 2 years is odd.

Now about the actual question - which is what do you do about this? If you didn't get the ticket in the 1 year required timeframe, then you shouldn't be required to pay at all. But proving that might be a challenge. There have been reports of collection agencies getting involved, but it seems rare. But if they did send it to collection, that can be a big PIA and they might be able to ding your credit. Be sure to call the phone number during regular business hours in Florence; maybe that will help resolve it. But otherwise, there really is no easy answer here.

Not clear on this: is the letter from a US collection agency, or from the Traffic authority in Italy?

Just pay it and be done with it. Driving in other countries almost always has it's negative points, at least your rental car was not stolen like most cars in Italy!

Live, most cars in Italy are not stolen. How is that tidbit informative or helpful?

Exactly. "Most" cars are not stolen, and that doesn't have anything to do with the OP's fine.

I've lived in Italy half of my life and I have literally hundreds of family members and friends living there (mostly in Florence and Tuscany), yet I've never personally met anybody whose car was stolen in Italy (I only know one Italian friend of a friend, whose car was stolen in Spain, then recovered later).

Now I recognize that is anecdotal and I'm not saying that auto theft doesn't happen in Italy, however for someone to come here and say that most cars are stolen in Italy, he or she has the burden to prove it with data.

Having said that, I wouldn't pay that parking ticket received 3 years after the fact, in spite of the fact I'm a dual citizen registered with AIRE (National Register of Italian Citizens living abroad) at the Italian Consulate of San Francisco. Who sent that letter anyhow?

One thing occurred to me about the OP's ticket: perhaps notifications were sent within those three years and either misplaced unopened , or unintentionally ignored? I don't think the OP is trying to get out of paying a legitimate fine, but mistakes happen.

Zoe, how could anyone unintentionally ignore a registered letter? Wouldn't the postman write on the back of it: "recipient refused to sign" or something like that?

The more I think about the all story, the more I think that they are just throwing out a net. They must either prove that tfwalls received the actual fine (written by the book) or that he refused it.

Tfwalls, would you write the italian telephone number you are supposed to call? Just to be sure it's a legitimate one. I'm sure you called during italian office hours.

Dario, I missed the registered letter part, I guess.