Tolls payment

It will depend on your card. Don't assume. Try it first in a cash lane.

Most times to pay are when leaving the highway, but some are intermediary.

If you share where you are driving we can help with specifics.

Yes, on mainland Italy (which I see from your other posts is where you'll be driving) there are lanes marked for credit cards. Your rental car may come equipped with Telepass for automated payments.

For others who may read this, in Sicily, there are 2 toll roads: Messina - Catania (A18) and Messina - Palermo (A20). I've been on some exits ( Giardini Naxos, for instance) that may have taken Telepass but not credit cards; they were cash only, unmanned booths.

I would avoid the credit card only lanes. The cash lanes are easy enough with coins or bills, whether manned or unmanned. If you can’t get your credit card to work, you will have honking and impatient people behind you. (Happened to us in Venice a few years ago). Someone official eventually came out to our lane to assist.

I would not attempt to use a credit card unless it is a true chip and pin and the not the US chip and signature card. And sometimes you pay in the middle of the road and not just at exits.

I drove from Naples to Calabria and back this weekend. I had two tolls, one for €4,70 and the other for €2,50. No need for a credit card, just have change.

Good question. We used our chip cards in France, and only had one glitch in three weeks of driving.

We'll be driving from and back to Florence -- for Umbria/Tuscany area. I google-mapped the trip, so plan to drive TO the region via the back roads, through Sienna... On the way back the following week, I planned to use the autostrada...

Taking your advice -- using the cash lane but trying my credit card(s), should we break a 20 Euro into small bills and change??

In Sicily the tolls were not that much, so we just used cash.

Thanks everyone for your answers.One more question.Do you need exact change or if you do you get change?

Hi Nigel,

The big journeys will be Puglia to Abruzzo,Abbruzzo to Tuscany(Maremma)Maremma to Emila Romagna,then E-R to Bologna to return car.Thanks in advance.

Puglia to Abruzzo,Abbruzzo to Tuscany(Maremma)Maremma to Emila Romagna,then E-R to Bologna

Have a look at the official website of the autostrada. You can get traffic and weather too.

Puglia to Abruzzo - you don't say where in Puglia, I chose Bari - you don't say where in Abruzzo, I chose Pescara: 308 km, about 3 1/2 hours, €23.70

Abbruzzo (Pescara) to Tuscany(Maremma (near Grosetto on the west coast, nearer Rome than Pisa??) as far as Montespaccato: 229 km, 2 1/2 hours to the end of autostrada, €21.30

Because I'm guessing, that's all I can figure out at the mo. Put in the actual route in the calculator above, and you'll get the real deal.

Exact change is not needed but makes the process quicker. The booth person stepped outside to give me change at the first toll booth.

I had been advised to have a baggie of change handy and that made to process very easy. I had been so worried about driving and toll roads. It was much easier than I expected.