traffic ticket

I'll always remember what our tour director told us...if you get a ticket and pay the ticket keep the receipt of payment. You can be surprised years later by receiving an unpaid ticket violation and be put in the position of having to pay again!

If an Italian tourist went to Green Valley and got 3 tickets because they didn't correctly read the road signs would you expect them to pay up? I would... ... would you?

That is the big question that no one has an answer to. Your passport cannot be confiscated. I supposed you could be denied entry to Italy but doubt if that would happen. Do a little searching on this site and you will find a hundred responses to this question. Some suggest you ignore them and others say pay them. In these days of interconnection of data, etc. it is hard to know what could happen when returning to Italy.

Frank is right - no one knows the consequences of not paying Italian traffic tickets. But one thought that occurs to me is that the more problem they have with tourists not paying, the stricter their future enforcement is likely to become. I'd also remember that the traffic authorities are now in possession of all the identifying information that you gave to your rental car company.

Hi Ruth, We paid one for 173.00 euros a few years back for entering a Limited Traffic Zone. We never received the ticket, but were notified by Hertz that there had been a citation issued. They got us a copy of the ticket, with the cost and the address to send the money to. We then mailed it in, and received a receipt about a year later. When we rented last August at Hertz, outside of Venice, we took a copy of the receipt. The Hertz computer showed no outstanding violations, so we didn't have to show our receipt. If you don't pay, I don't see Italy, blocking you from coming in, but who knows? Were you speeding, driving into a LTZ, or were they red light infractions? You have 60 days to appeal, but probably is too late. In 2008, Florence, issued 859,959 citations, with 457,613 being LTZ infractions. It brought in 51 million euro. Not bad for a city of about 400,000 population.
You can read it for yourself. http://www.bella-toscana.com/traffic_violations_italy.htm

Like the swallows to Capistrano, this question comes back again and again on this board. It's nicely summarized above. But please note that one of the guidelines for this board is that no one can tell you to break the law.

The above posts cover this issue well. I'll add one thing: expect a charge on your credit card from your rental company for the "service" of giving Italian authorities your contact information. It's a legit charge that you agreed to when you rented the car. Also know that you are not alone - MANY people get caught by these cameras and don't realize it for months until they get the tickets. Unknowing or not, you did violate their traffic laws.

I think part of the issue here is that ZTL tickets are issued by automated cameras rather than by human cops. There's no leeway or "be more alert next time" with a camera. A couple of years ago a Chicago suburb, Schaumburg, installed a few red-light cameras. In the first year, there were $1 million in fines issued at a single intersection. There was such a public outcry that the town removed the cameras. Also, it's obvious tourists are going to be nailed out of proportion because locals know the ZTL's and stay out of them. It's not a conspiracy.

"If an Italian tourist went to Green Valley and got 3 tickets because they didn't correctly read the road signs would you expect them to pay up?" Actually, to be perfectly honest, if an well-meaning Italian tourist mistakenly did here what Ruth describes she did there, I would understand completely and forgive their honest and otherwise completely harmless mistake. If they had caused damage, injured someone, wantonly flaunted the rules, or put people nearby at great risk, well that would be different. Yes, it is a virtue to always do what you are supposed to do. But I also think it's a virtue to see degrees of guilt and degrees of seriousness in the laws involved. You can mock me if you wish and throw trumped-up allegations of a world gone mad under my philosophy. But the next time a traffic cop pulls you over, tell me you won't desperately hope he believes your excuse and lets you off with a kind warning...

If I lived in a community where there were signs telling tourists they are not permitted to drive in the community and they did anyway I would expect them to pay the fine. Just because they made a mistake is not reason enough for them not to pay the fine. The excuse that it was a mistake would not get anyone out of a ticket here so it shouldn't be the basis of not paying a ticket in a foreign country. There are many, many of us on this and other forums who tell about the difficulties of driving in a foreign country like Italy. We always tell people about the limited traffic zones and that they will be fined if they drive into one, even by mistake. The information is out there and if someone chooses to take the chance then they should pay the fine. No one knows what is likely to happen if the fine isn't paid. This seems to be a big issue and I wouldn't doubt that Italy and other countries will start to use technology to keep track of this type of offense since it seems to happen so often. It's a risk you take if you don't pay. Donna

I am going to say what I usually say when this question comes up, as it so often does. Ruth, what is your opinion of foreign visitors to your country who would refuse to pay a traffic fine they incurred while there? Is that okay with you?

Can I take this off in a slightly different direction? There are some folk who say that nothing is damaged and there is no harm and it is effectively a tourist tax. I'd like to disagree with that premise. The zones are for everybody whether they are tourists or locals. For example, I don't drive into London on weekdays because of the Congestion Charge. Does it work perfectly? Well, not perfectly, but I and others don't go, therefore there is less congestion and less pollution, and London is a nicer place. Ancient cities like Florence have ZTLs which make walking safer and easier and keep a bit of pollution out of the air, and there is less soot and pollution on buildings which suffer from them. So, if a person drives their car into a restricted area there may be damage to buildings and art, congestion, danger to pedestrians, particularly if one or both are lost, and damage to the quality of life. The purpose of the ZTL is to limit those. The fine is high enough to stop people flouting it. I may not have put that perfectly. So ... the question is ... is it still a victim-less offense, causing no damage or other harm?

Nigel, If you were having that conversation on the spot, through the open car window, with a tourist trying to save some time and aggivation by "harmlessly" cutting across a ZTL, I would agree with you entirely. That falls under the category of wanton behavior I described before. If they were simply lost, but guilty and pulled over by an official, I would say they had better pay their ticket. In fact, my assumption has always been that the ticket would automatically get put on their rental car bill (as has happened to us twice). BTW, that official would likely give them the directions necessary to exit the ZTL without cris-crossing it again, saving them the absurd double or triple fine. However, this is a situation in which a person has returned home fresh with the glow of a successful trip. They have no idea they did anything wrong. Months have passed (in some cases more than a year). And then they get a letter in the mail... I well know there are many people for whom the issue is simply "rules are rules" and it ends there. I just think life has more nuance than that. Call it splitting hairs if you wish, but I think the situations are different. But we may have to agree to disagree (oh, how I cringe at that saying). I don't really want to take the argument much farther...

We were lost and, apparently, didn't correctly read the road signs.
**We were going around in circles! ** Sounds like they knew there was a problem and they accept that the tickets are legit. Being ignorant of the law or breaking the law by "innocent mistake" is still breaking the law. Donna

The photo cameras don't know violators are tourists! These laws aren't aimed at skimming fines from tourists. They're meant to keep cars out of historic centers to reduce pollution, damage and conflict with pedestrians. Almost any tourist in a rental car is still going to have an Italian license plate. There's no way the camera, the police, or the enforcement agency will know that the car is a rental and operated by a tourist until the notification is sent to the owner of the vehicle on record. This is not a "tourist tax."

If an Italian came to California and was issued a citation. Returned home without paying. I would not be up in arms about this infraction. It is not a big deal to me. I also agree with the posting, it is at least given by a live law enforcemnet officer and not by a camera to be received a year later. But that is just my humble opinion.

Keep in mind that if you don't pay the ticket, extra charges can accrue. As for ignoring it until it disappears in five years, don't count on record-keeping being that up to date. Then there's the whole good citizen of the world issue...

Plenty of Italians are fined every day for the same infractions. It's not a tourist fine...it's a city fine. They are not trying to bite the hand that feeds them and just because you spend money somewhere doesn't give you the right to snub their laws and traditions. What does it matter if it's a camera or a real person giving the fine? The infraction is just the same. How many people would use the excuse of "I'm just a tourist and didn't know" if it were are real person? My guess would be everyone and most American would be renting cars and driving, instead of taking the train, knowing they could make excuses to try to get away with it. America is a driving culture while Italy is not. They are trying to preserve the monuments in the best way they know how and one of those ways is by trying to limit pollution. The OP should pay the fine. Donna

I also feel you should pay the ticket. However I also believe that if a person gets more then one ticket in the same area in a short period of time they should only have to pay one rather then multiple tickets.

Hi had to laugh at Nigel's comment. I can't think of a single Italian who would happily and willingly pay any sort of citation in Italy or elsewhere. Circumventing the law is their national pastime

<<What does it matter if it's a camera or a real person giving the fine?>> If it's a real person, some people aren't going to be caught and some people are going to be let go without a fine. If it's an automated camera, everybody's going to be caught and no one's going to be let go. That's the difference. Do you think Schaumburg (read my last post) made $1 million at that intersection before the cameras were installed?

Just because Chicago decided to let the "law breakers" decide how their community is run doesn't mean that Italy is under the same obligation. If the police had done their jobs and no one was allowed "a pass" then the behavior would have stopped. People would know that running a light was going to get the fined, period. It's the same in Italy. You can find hundreds of posts with people telling others that they shouldn't risk driving into cities because of the ZTL's. We don't say "you may" get fined, we say "you WILL" get fined. That's just the way it is. If they went back to humans giving out tickets more and more people would take the chance of driving into the city and thus creating more traffic headaches and pollution. This way everyone is treated equally, if you drive into a ZTL without a permit you get fined. Donna

The LA Times has an excellent article on Italian traffic tickets and what to do if you get one here: Italy's road rules sting travelers