toll booths and autostradas

Tried to PM you but it wasn't working..... Hi Marge, Sorry but that other post was'nt from me. Ron in Rome possibly?
What I usually do in those situations is get to the town (input into the GPS) and then either ask for directions at a bar or something or call the owner of the villa and tell him to meet me at some point in town. Getting a match on the GPS for something like that can be a pain. Wish I could be of better help but have never been to the area you're going to. I know it can be stressful but would suggest using the autostrada if it makes it easier. Really, once you get used to it, it's not a whole lot different than the states.

Here's a great website: http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/driving/autostrada.htm We tried to avoid the autostrada when in Tuscany as it is so scenic (and calmer) on the country roads. This was back before GPS but there is lots of info on this board about the wonders of GPS and a good map. http://www.unrv.com/provinces/tuscany-travel-maps.php

The roads in Tuscany are def. more scenic than the autostrada but more time consuming. If you want to save time from point to point use the autostrada, scenic:backroads.
You'll get a ticket as you enter the autostrada and when you leave it you'll the ticket and pay the toll. Cash or credit card. I use a magnetic strip card ( Cap one, no fees) and have not had any problems with it anywhere in Italy BUT if you go to gas up at a station without an attendant you may have problems with the pump. The toll lanes will be marked with either/or/both written/picture signs for attendant/cash/credit lanes and Telepass which you won't use. Attended booths will usually only take cash. On the autostrada: Lights on always, far left lane for passing. Don't freak out if you're in the left and someone comes up behind you (like two inches from your bumper while doing 100 KPH) flashing lights. Just get over when you can. Navigate to places by knowing the bigger towns in the area you want to go to. There are rarely exit numbers, you'll exit for the town you want but also you'll want to know if it's Nord, Sud, Ovest or Est (north, south, west, east). Usually just the bigger towns will have exits for all four, smaller towns may have two or only one. Getting the correct exit can save you some driving through town. Also, you're unlikely to run into this on the autostrada but possibly on smaller roads: If you see a cop on the side of the road with a little red, round sign and he's holding it up at you he wants you to stop to check your documents.

Toll booths in Italy, or most of them, operate like turnpikes in US: you get a magnetic ticket when you enter, you handle it back (to a person or a machine, English menus available) when you exit, fare is calculated in seconds, you pay, you go. The entry toll booths don't have attendants, but operating them is simple as it can get: press a button, a ticket is half-pushed out, you pull it and retrieve it. 95% of exit toll booths have human attendants, some minor exits (mainly on A5 and A10, far from where you are driving) don't. They have those giant signs before the booths indicating which are manned, which are automated, and which are for Telepass only (blu lanes). Avoid Telepass as you don't have a subscription plan, but that is easy to spot. As for the reaching the villa: it pays off for you to check, in advance, its location on Google Maps or Via Michelin. Then, you can pre-program your GPS and make sure it's headed on the right direction.

Tollbooths are easy enough to use. You may only see one slot though. Normally, you would expect a slot to your ticket and another to your money (cash). This was confusing to me at first, but then I realized that you slide your ticket and your payment into the same slot. http://www.accessitaly.com/post/Driving-in-Italy-part-5-e28094-Paying-Autostrade-Tolls.aspx

We just got back from a 19 day trip to Italy, driving from Venice, to Cinque, then into Tuscany and we felt it was a breeze! We did have a GPS with us, but overall I think we did really well. You can also go to viamichelin.com for maps, fuel and toll costs; it's very informative. I think most places you will drive in Italy are scenice so you can't go wrong; depends on how much time you want to take getting from place to place. Happy Travels!!

I kept a supply of cash in the car for tolls. My best advice is bring a GPS. We tried to navigate with a map. When we approached an intersection, there was a smallish sign that said towns x, y, z with and with an arrow. We had never heard of any of the towns. You don't have time to pull out a map and figure out if the towns are in your direction of travel or not (and the towns aren't big places you might have heard of). Even when we expected an intersection and knew we wanted to go west, the intersection that looked like it went west invariably turned the opposite way and sent us east. We never had luck trying to guess what towns might be listed on the sign. Each wrong turn costs a lot of time. Since it's a toll road, exits are few and far between. If you choose the wrong exit, you may have to drive ten or more minutes, get off, pay your toll, find a way across the autostrada, find an entrance, take a ticket and drive ten or more minutes back to where you made the wrong turn. A GPS will work so much better.