Rome/Florence ZTLs

Could you share why you are using the car for Rome and Florence? Sharing why you feel you need the car will help you get answers, believe me. The easiest solution would be to pick up the car as you leave Florence. I have done four driving trips in various parts of Italy, and I would try to avoid what you are proposing if at all possible.

The parking lot representative said that we will have no issue in driving through the ZTL without a permit since we will be leaving it.
That is correct. The cameras are positioned only in the entry points. There is no camera enforcement while exiting.

hotel will have to register our license place with the police ahead of time. Do you know how long this process takes?
Seconds. The hotel won't need to register your car ahead of time. Once you enter the ZTL and check into your hotel, provide the hotel desk with your car info, and he will enter the info in the City of Florence website in the ZTL White List. Even though your license will have been photographed when you entered the ZTL when you arrive, however as long as the hotel enters the info on the website within 3 hours from your entry, no ticket will be issued since your car was in the White List .

My question is same as valadelphia

Unless you are LEASING the car for long term why would you need it in Rome and Florence?

At this year’s rental rates that’s an expensive parked car!

I didn't think it was necessary to explain the full details of our trip, so I only included the parts I had questions about. We are leasing the car because we will be traveling throughout France, Belgium, and the Netherlands as well. Driving is the easiest way to get to those locations. Leasing the car is less than a third of the price as renting one and it comes with zero deductible insurance. There is no pick up location in Florence.

Adding that to your post may help avoid getting the same question over and over--you did ask for tips about driving in Italy in general. Sometimes people propose driving in these cities with no good reason, so we must explain over and over that the train is better, in most--but not all--circumstances.
Roberto has answered you main question, so, let's talk about the fun driving part instead--do you have a route in mind? Will you have time to stop in small villages en route?

Do check with the hotel desk 24 hours after arrival to be sure they’ve entered it to the white list. Stuff can happen if they’re busy.

Thank you, Roberto! That is very helpful and I appreciate the quick response! Do you know if this information is available on any government site? Not that I don't trust you, but it would give me even more peace of mind to have official information to reference in case we do run into any issues.

I'm relieved to know we can leave the ZTL during active hours. I was worried we would have to get up earlier than planned just to pick up the car to drive out of the area.

Thanks again!

I'll only add this: Don't assume that the only ZTLs you will encounter are those in Rome and Florence. I encountered ZTLs in multiple, small (one might even think obscure-to-foreigners) cities around Italy. If you're driving in any old city in Italy, be on guard for a ZTL. They are out there.

@valadelphia Since AutoEurope doesn't have a pickup location in Florence, we chose to pick it up in Rome. Rather than deal with other transportation to the city and back to the airport, we are picking it up when we arrive. It will also allow us to maximize our time in Rome and Florence. We have have experience driving in France and spent a day in Spain on one of those trips. Driving in Spain seemed different enough compared to what we were used to in France that I thought it would be helpful to ask about driving in Italy, especially with the ZTLs.

After Florence, we are driving to my MIL's with an overnight stop in Nice and a stop in Carcassonne. We arrive at her house the day before her birthday, so we won't have much extra time to stop along the way. After our visit with her, we are seeing Puy du Fou, a few chateaux in the Loire Valley, Paris, Bruges, and Amsterdam.

Thank you, gerri. I'll be sure to check in with the hotel until they can confirm they have submitted our information.

Thank you, David. That's good to know! We aren't planning on any other Italian cities, but who knows what will happen when we are there. We will need food and bathroom breaks at some point and a cute little town will be hard to resist.

I think you have your answers, but be cautious. While cameras are only at entry points, it is just as easy to exit that ZTL, and stumble upon another. If you can exit directly to a main road, and stay on it, that will lessen the chance of getting caught.

Similar to the Hotel in Florence, over the years, there have been a number of people that ran into the situation of either the Hotel not registering them, driving into a separate ZTL on the way to the hotel, or some other slip that results in violations. Just verify with the hotel, get a name, and keep details of the arrival (Day, Time, route taken, etc.) so if something does show up, the hotel might help you out to resolve.

Thanks for clarifying, it does make it easier to give relevant advice

This is old but still useful
http://driventoit.blogspot.com/2015/01/driving-in-italy-including-dreaded-ztls.html?m=1

Thank you, Paul. We will plan our route ahead of time and will be sure to avoid re-entering any ZTLs. They are so complicated and have been adding a lot of stress to our trip-planning. I understand their purpose and fully appreciate them, but I wish there was a manual that explained all of the details. It sounds much to easy to accidentally break the rules and get a hefty fine.

Thank you, ChristineH! That link is very helpful!

They are so complicated and have been adding a lot of stress to our
trip-planning. I understand their purpose and fully appreciate them,
but I wish there was a manual that explained all of the details.

They are not that complicated. Stay out of them and you don't have to worry.

Just assume there are ZTLs everywhere
Don’t drive into any small towns, park outside the walls
Watch out for bus lanes while driving in Rome and Florence

For a comprehensive guide to driving in italy, download their E-book.

https://italybeyondtheobvious.com/

IDP is available at AAA in person or online. Cost around $25.

Are you aware if you rent in Italy and drop in France, there’s huge drop off fee? To avoid drop the car in Italy, either San Reno or Ventimiglia train to Nice and pick up another rental.

Gerri
OP is leasing the car so that won’t be an issue

I can certainly provide the official source for Florence ZTL. Unfortunately it's in Italian only.

http://www.serviziallastrada.it/it/schede-informative-ztl-01

For clients of hotels inside ZTL click on Scheda 4.2 link and download the PDF.
For clients of garages inside the ZTL click on 4.1.

Note that you need to confirm that your hotel has parking availability first. Also the permitted entry is only to go to the hotel choosing the closest ZTL entry to the hotel. It's not that you can enter from the opposite side of town and roam around for 3 hours. If you tell us where you are staying will tell you how to get there (or ask the hotel).

Regarding picking up the leased car in Rome upon arrival, keeping the car in a car park in the city center of Rome is likely to cost you at least $30 a day. So depending on how long you stay in Rome, it might be cheaper to go pick up your car at the airport on the way out of Rome. A taxi costs 50 euro each way (flat fee) while the train costs 15 euro per person (one way).

I wish there was a manual that explained all of the details.

Did you memorise the "ZTL" warning signs in Rome and Florence?

Once you know the signs, you start seeing the signs like locals and you need a ZTL manual just like you need a One-Way Streets manual.

Incredibly helpful! Thank you so much, Roberto! All of this information is much appreciated!

I have already confirmed a parking space with the hotel in Florence and am working on a reservation at the garage in Rome.

We will not be cruising around either city and will be sure to take the most direct route to each location.

Also, thank you for the info on costs. We will be in Rome for 3 days, so it sounds like the cost will be similar to get the four of us out and back if we pick up the car on our way out of Rome. Hopefully it will save us some time too.

@Dario
One-way streets typically don't have ON and OFF hours or need a special permit in order to access them. Whatever "point" you are trying to make makes no sense.

A huge thank you to everyone who gave me helpful information! I am grateful for wealth of knowledge and quick responses!

If anyone has any other info that would be good to know, please don't hesitate to share. Thanks again!!

One-way streets typically don't have ON and OFF hours or need a special permit in order to access them

I think that Dario was making a good point that once you know the signs and general rules, especially the traffic light system in the bigger cities (on Lake Como for example, in the tiny town of Varenna there is a similarly tiny sign on a short post in the main square - no traffic lights there) dealing with the ZTLs becomes second nature... like dealing with One-Way signs (you'll see plenty of those Senso Unico or arrow signs) or bus lane signs (plenty of those too, even trickier in my mind than ZTL) it just becomes second nature.

I always assume that a ZTL is active, and check the hours if I need to enter one. I will say that in 20 years of driving in Italy I have never had a ticket - they are not compulsory.

you are trying to make makes no sense.

If you see a ZTL warning sign placed well before the camera , entering by mistake is very unlikely. More, you have time to slow-down and get ready to understand the hours of operation written under the sign. Unlike a manual, It could also be helpful to understand you are accidentally driving back towards the ZTL "border".

On the other hand, seeing the last ZTL sign under the camera at the last second, with locals' cars behind you, is like realising you are driving along a one-way road In the wrong direction only when you see the lights of an oncoming truck.

I could add that most ZTLs are active at different times depending on the city and/or the season, so a thousands pages manual for each would make Zero sense and would be quite unpractical to use while driving in a foreign country. The only ZTL manual you could actually use all over Italy would be made of a single page with the ZTL sign printed on.

But, given your 100% French-style attitude, I can only thank you for helping paying Italy's national debt off.

PS. Thanks Nigel

One-way streets typically don't have ON and OFF hours or need a
special permit in order to access them. Whatever "point" you are
trying to make makes no sense.

I think the point Dario is trying to make is that you look at the road signs and it is pretty easy to understand.

Like this example from Parma: https://goo.gl/maps/6hFZ7KnEJfvhtAPX8

@Dario @Nigel

once you know the signs and general rules

Unfortunately, the signs don't answer the two questions I asked, so I suggested it would be nice to have a manual to help. Then I could learn the general rules. Luckily for me, Roberto was kind enough to provide a link to the manual.

Which hotel are you staying in Florence? I can give you exact instructions on how to get there. I think I know the city well enough to know how to get anywhere safely, although there have been changes since my last trip over 2 years ago.

Besides knowing the white with red border sign used for ZTL (that signs is used throughout Europe to indicate an area with prohibited motor vehicles' traffic, including pedestrian areas), it is important that you become familiar with all signs used in Italy (which are basically uniform throughout Europe, since they are based on the International Road System):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_signs_in_Italy

In particular become familiar with the signs that are radically different from the US, such as the NO PARKING sign or the NO STOPPING sign. Those signs generally indicate the hours of operations. In the absence of hours indication, the no parking sign is intended to be operative from 8am to 8pm in cities, and 24h/day outside of built up areas.
Also become familiar with the TIMED PARKING WITH DISK which requires the use of a disk where you mark the time of arrival at the spot, that low tech instrument is called DISCO ORARIO, all rental cars have one (maybe in the glove compartment), just mark the time of arrival and placed it on the dashboard. Those parking with disc are slowly disappearing, as more and more cities have replaced them with parking meters. Note that parking meters require you to purchase a timed ticket in a machine (usually in the same block) which you then place on the dashboard. The individual meters next to each parking space have been replaced as they were too costly to maintain (that has happened in the US as well).

In addition to that, be aware that on highways the left lane is passing only lane (no cruising in the left lane) and passing is permitted only on the left (no overcoming a vehicle from the right flank). As soon as you pass a vehicle, move back to the right lane to permit faster vehicles behind you to pass. This does not apply to multi lane boulevards inside cities, just multi lane highways.

Thank you, Roberto! Again, very helpful!

We have been reviewing the signs and found some that we didn't know. We hadn't heard of the disco orario. Thank you for mentioning it.

I appreciate your help!

That hour disk thing will also be helpful in France, where many small towns use the same principle for street parking.

Also become very familiar with roundabouts. You will have to drive through hundreds in Italy, as most intersections have been reconfigured and the street lights replaced by roundabouts.
If you are not familiar with them, learn by watching a tutorial on YouTube (there are many). Remember that in a roundabout, the vehicle already circulating in the roundabout has the right of way. If you are about to enter a roundabout, slow down and yield to the vehicles already inside the roundabout (a yield sign is always at the entrance of a roundabout). If there are no vehicles inside of it already you can just enter the roundabout without stopping.
Below are two roundabouts in Portland, Oregon I know about. Practice there if you have never experienced the 'thrill'.

https://goo.gl/maps/Q4a3JLJvoe9dXivbA
https://goo.gl/maps/755enhg4Gknckf4AA

These are the signs to watch for in Italy
- Roundabout sign
- Roundabout warning sign before the sign above when the roundabout is outside of a city, in extra-urban areas
- Yield sign at the entrance of a roundabout (like in the US)