ZTL in Umbria

I went to Perugia and daytrip to Assisi last summer here is info about ZTL
http://www.perugiaonline.com/tfintpgus.html
http://www.assisionline.it/Assisi_traffico.html

I Imagine you can find these for each individual town by searching the internet.
Actually here is another thread about ZTL and includes other towns you mentioned:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/ztl

In Gubbio, you can drop off passengers in the Piazza dei Quaranta (40) Martiri. Any roads up the hill from there are surely within the ZTL. In addition to the paid parking lot on that square, there are free parking lots a few blocks away. The hill is relatively gentle for a few blocks as you climb Via Repubblica, and then there is a series of elevators you can take to reach higher sightseeing. Stop at the Tourist Info office for a map (just off the Piazza, closes for lunch, like most other things) showing the elevators, public toilets, and of course visitor attractions. You can also drive to and park at the Roman Theater.

Montepulciano has a shuttle bus to take visitors up it's steep main drag from the closest parking spot (described in Rick's guidebook). In Montalcino, parking near the Fortezza is basically level with the high road through town, unlike some of the other parking lots that require stairs to the top.

Also, the trick I learned for map reading in several hilltowns (at least Gubbio and Montalcino but not Montepulciano), is that the long roads on the map are relatively gentle switchbacks while the short roads on the map are basically stairs.

Orvieto has an easy funicular to take you to the top of town from the train station/car park. Assisi has some escalators from car parks to the main road ( e.g. at Porta Nuova parking, working on 3/4 of my recent visits) and shuttle buses around (again described in Rick's book). Deruta's old town is quite small; more hard-core shopping is in the new town at the bottom of the hill. I think all of these towns also have taxis available.

Does your relative have an official disabled parking permit? We have used ours several times in Italy. We just call the number on the sign at the entrance to the ZTLs and registered our license plate and then could drive into the ZTLs. We also put the disabled permit on the dashboard and have been able to park for free in the handicap parking places.

Hill towns like Montepulciano are simply not a good choice for people with mobility issues; the town is steep as are many hill towns. Lucca is fairly flat and would be a good choice; a stroll around its walls is lovely. Assisi is also a fairly steep town. I hope your relative is the kind of good sport who says 'let me sit here at the cafe and watch people go by in the square; you folks go climb the tower and walk the battlements.'

In Assisi, you can park in the upper parking lot and walk down the main street, much easier than walking uphill. There are two roads to the basilica, the left side seems less steep to me.

Your US disabled permit is not guaranteed to work, but glad to know it was honored per the poster above. Perhaps the house owner can help with finding out where you can get a temporary permit? A friend needed to drive through a ZTL in Assisi and stopped at the police station for s handwritten permit.

Thank you, thank you! This detailed information about several towns is so very helpful for planning! Laura, I think that I have Rick's newest Italy book waiting for me under the Christmas tree, so I'll be be thumbing through that soon for some of the information you indicated. I was beginning to panic as we didn't know just how compromised my brother in law's mobility had become when we invited them last summer. I had been hinting that this might not be the vacation of their dreams, but they booked their air tickets a couple of days ago, so here we go. I tend to go on overdrive when overseas, wanting to see and do everything I can squeeze in. I think that slowing down might do me good, but I also don't want to give up on all of the things that I've been dreaming of doing for so long. I do think that our dear brother-in-law would be happy for short periods being left at an outdoor cafe to people watch while we climb hills and towers. Frankly, my husband might be happy to join him. We'll have four new college graduates, including my daughter, joining us too, but that's another story.

Debbie,

"Does anyone know if Spello, Perugia, Montefalco, Gubbio or Montepulciano have ZTL which would make driving close to the core tourist areas difficult?"

Based on unofficial observations, I've found that most towns and cities in Italy (both north and south) have some form of ZTL, either enforced by automated cameras or by the "cop on the beat". Assisi definitely has ZTL areas and one of the locals told me they were planning to add cameras in the near future, so that's probably been done by now.

I'm not sure if this would be possible on all locations, but one option might be to park in a lot outside the ZTL and use a Cab to get the limited mobility individual in to a nice sidewalk café.

Thanks, Ken! I was hoping that it was only the cities and larger towns that had limited traffic zones, but it doesn't sound as though we can count on that. I really do not want to risk getting a ticket, or multiple tickets. But there's some great advice here on how to make this work. And, as someone suggested, I can probably get further advice from the woman who owns the agriturismo where we're renting the house.

You will drive yourself crazy limiting yourself to only what your BIL can do. Even with a full family of able bodied people we split up into groups of two often when traveling as herding a group with different interests is a recipe for disaster. It is also nice to spend one on one time with people you don't see often. I would give a lot of thought to your must sees and also to how to be inclusive. For example can you suggest splitting up into pairs so people get one on one time with each other as a value quite apart from coping with the disability. That way everyone who can can climb those towers and wander the ramparts of the hill town and everyone can spend some quality time with each other including BIL. So identify an activity that BIL can manage easily and one person does that with him -- maybe your husband is interested in a particular museum and can do it with BIL while you and SIL do something else then meet for lunch and re-organize. Go in with the assumption that you will do your top priorities and 'of course' the group will form and reform and not do everything together. Another approach is for couples to assume that most days are on their own with the group gathering for dinner each day -- or some days that way. Let them know you plan to do XY and Z which may be a challenge for BIL so how can the group organize the day to get that done and also find something that works for BIL. If you aren't open about your own priorities and the need to arrange the day so everyone gets what they can from it, you will end up miserable and resentful by the time the trip is done.

ZTLs are in all the small towns with a Renaissance or older historic core, which is what you want to see. Even if you were allowed to drive in and drop, you'd still have to park outside that zone because there's just no room, especially on a small hilltop.

Thanks, Laura for clarfying. And thanks, Janet, for the words of wisdom. I'm working on that balance. I have already told the family that spending a day in Assisi is my personal sightseeing priority in Umbria. The in-laws will have a separate car, so that will help us to be flexible and do some regrouping. I plan on being a driver on our rental car along with my husband, so if one of us wants to go in the other car, that will make it easier. I should say that BIL is a great cook, so he may be happy pulling together some meals back at the house and we'll all benefit! And a wine tour with a private guide and van might be something that everyone would like. Rome is going to be another story because, this being our second time there, we have a bucket list of places to visit that we regretted missing the first time. Unfortunately, most of these involve a lot of walking & stairs: Ancient Appian Way, Catecombs, San Clemente, Coliseum high & low tour, Ostia Antica, a walking food tour. So I'm willing to go more with their priorities/needs in Umbria since we will likely split off more when we get to Rome. If we get to two or three of the hill towns on our list, in addition to Assisi, I think we'll be doing well, and hopefully everyone will feel that they got what they came for! Not to mention that we'll be in a beautiful house, surrounded by olive trees, that looks out to Assisi in the distance. To me, that's the stuff that dreams are made of.

If you have a car, the Franciscan sights outside Assisi will be possible for your BIL. Splitting up and regrouping is key.

Debbie,

One more point to mention......

Note that for driving in Italy, each driver listed on the rental form must have the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. These are valid for one year, and easily obtained at any CAA/AAA office (two Passport-sized photos required, which may be provided by the issuing office).

Having two cars is great and yes Rome will be a real challenge. I traveled in Rome for a week with my then 80 year old mother who was mobility impaired but able to walk and climb stairs with a cane -- but with great difficulty. I took her to Ville d'Este on a tour remembering that it was flat and easily walked; what I had forgotten because I am not impaired is that to get to the flat garden you had to go down a huge number of stairs -- she simply could not do it and had to sit at a table at the top of the gardens and missed the whole thing. I felt terrible. Someone informed me later that this is now changed and they have handicapped access routes but it was not so 20 years ago when I did this with her. We still had a great time but it was a struggle for her. WE didn't do San Clemente for example and she didn't climb the dome of St. Peters but we were able to see many of the sites she wanted to see and we saw all of the major Michelangelo sculptures available in Florence and Rome, a special interest of hers.

My memory is that Lucca would be one of the Tuscan towns easy for someone with mobility issues and San Gimignano is also very walkable from its parking lots. Both are wonderful. Assisi is trickier because the basilica is downhill from the center. (one thing to check out is whether any of these towns have those little miniature tourist trains. This is a great way for someone with mobility issues to see these villages. I have seen them in Florence and Paris -- can't remember if they have them in Assisi. I do know there is a mini bus system that takes you from the Assisi parking lots to major tourist sites in town -- presumably you could ride it once in Assisi from say the Cathedral and Santa Chiara area down to the Basilica of St. Francis and back.

You've gotten some great advice already, so I'll add a point just slightly off-topic. I drove in Umbria for two weeks this summer, and noticed that nearly every road, large and small, had fixed speed cameras somewhere along it. I tried to be careful, but I've been holding my breath waiting for speeding tickets to arrive. So far so good, but a year's not up yet. So keep your eyes open and your foot light on the gas. The cameras are in metal boxes about the size of a mailbox, are not one consistent color, and are often positioned just past turns in the road so you can't see them coming.

On the bright side, every town I visited had ample parking, often free, just outside the walls. I never had trouble finding a convenient spot. As mentioned, some had elevators or funiculars (Todi, Orvieto), others had some sort of motorized shuttles. I usually puffed up the hills under my own steam, but I did notice options as others have described.

My favourite memory is of walking down from a lovely dinner at the top of Todi in the summer twilight, noticing families of all ages walking UP for a much later dinner than mine. It was a beautiful evening, but I thought about how most of us would not want to walk up a long hill for dinner. What a pleasant way to start an evening, strolling and chatting rather than jockeying for the parking spot nearest the door. I understand your needs, it was just such a difference from what I'm used to that I noticed and remembered it.

Enjoy your trip. Umbria is magical.

P.S. We did this wine tour with six of us while in Umbria, and can't recommend it highly enough. Mark was very well organized and entertaining, and the wine and food were all amazing.