It's important to know that if you choose a hotel within a ZTL (Zona Traffico Limitato) that you can drive in for check-in, and you can drive out on the day of your departure but you cannot drive in and out at will during your stay. For example, I had considered a 3-night stay at an inner city hotel in Bologna and planned to visit nearby Modena or Parma on my Day 3. No way. Can't do it. I can only drive in to the city one time, and out of the city one time. I find the ZTL system to be a good idea gone haywire. It's caused me to change my plans more than once, and avoid city center hotels all together in many cases. Failure to follow the rules precisely results in a major fine and if you have a rental car then the fine just got larger because of all of the administration fees the car rental company tacks on.
Posted by
Washington DC Region, USA
7049 posts
The point is that you don't need (or even want) a car in city centers due to expense, and city centers are protected for pedestrians and locals. It seems like a system that works (less traffic, less pollution, less aggregate cars, etc), but it's obviously less convenient for temporary vehicles like car rentals. But the advantage of renting a car is to stay in less expensive or atmospheric/larger lodging outside of city centers, isn't it? You just need to pick - if you really want to stay in a city center, then having a car rental on those days doesn't make sense. It is what it is, there's always a workaround for everything like renting a car after the city center stay, or even parking it on the outskirts (some folks do this in Venice or Florence if they absolutely need the car). That doesn't mean some kind of system breakdown or haywire with the ZLT system - it's like that by design.
Posted by
Pa and Italy
4152 posts
What would be the point of have a restricted zone if you could drive in it as much as you wanted? Unless you're staying in and visiting very rural areas of Italy a car really is not the best choice for getting around.
Donna
Posted by
🏝️ Hobe Sound, FL⛱️
3158 posts
It’s more important to know that avoiding a ZTL fine is not automatic if you’re going to your hotel. Your vehicle and number plate have to be registered with the local authorities and many, many hotels won’t bother to do it. Safest thing is to make sure you never, ever drive into a ZTL.