We’ve been home from Italy for about 5 months and the dreaded ticket came in the mail this past Monday. First, let me assure you, we take driving anywhere, especially in a foreign country seriously. My husband drives, I navigate. We don't drive around ignoring local laws. While my husband drives, I'm navigating, watching for signs, making sure we don't hit pedestrians, bikers, etc. and looking for a place to park. We know there are certain areas we are not supposed to drive and we watch for them. We've driven in Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, various Caribbean islands, France, Germany, Portugal, Luxembourg, Spain, Belgium, Italy (including Sicily), probably more.
Our nemesis is Gubbio, in Umbria. It took me a while to figure out what city that was, and I had to look thru photos to figure out what may have happened. There was massive construction in city center, it was market day. We were trying to find parking and using google maps. The violation was at 10:40 am, which coincides with us looking for parking.
Personally, it really stinks, because their city center was a MESS! We now regret going there. None the less, apparently we committed an infraction and we JUST WANT TO PAY FOR IT.
I consider the forum my travel friends. You all have helped me with many trips, and I feel we are rather experienced travelers at this point, thanks to the forum. First, I thought, I will go see if my friends can help me with this ticket. I did a search on the forum. I saw enough negative, condescending comments about ZTL infractions that I sure wasn't going to make a post. To be fair, there were some good suggestions from folks that always try to be helpful--Acraven, Roberto, etc. In lieu of a post, I messaged some folks. Lo and behold, there is a fair number of very experienced travelers that have also received tickets and have also struggled to figure out how to pay them. To be perfectly clear, we are not trying to evade payment.
Nothing on the notice is clear. I don't speak Italian, not their fault, mine. But, I struggled with google translate. Next, if its paid in five days, the fee is 30%. OK, well, tell me how to pay. It doesn't say if its five days from receipt, five days from when its sent, five business days OR WHAT? I immediately sent several emails. Nobody responds! Then I notice there is some kind of online system. I again start searching the forum. Today, which is the 4th day from receipt, I started to try to pay it online. They won't take U.S. credit cards. (U.S. credit cards are accepted by merchants, etc., in Italy, so they could, I imagine, figure out how to take our credit cards) I noted that some on the forum recommended WISE and PAYPAL. The Umbria system doesn't accept WISE as an option. I then look to my Paypal account which I haven't used in many years. I updated the credit cards and tried to use it. Over and over it wasn't accepted. I sat on hold for two hours with Paypal to find out that because my account hasn't been used in ages, it rejected an international payment, and now my account is frozen for 72 hours.
So, at that point, I was at a loss. I don't have friends in Italy. I contacted B&B we stayed at in Orvieto. She suggested that since I've made a good faith attempt, to forget about it. Well, that's not who we are, we pay our fines. Secondly, we don't want to come back to Italy and not be able to rent a car or worse, get arrested. Italy is not a country I want to mess with. So, I expressed my concerns. This lovely, kind woman is going to go to the Orvieto police department to see if she can't help.
To, sum up, don't bother to email, don't bother trying credit cards, look to see if WISE is accepted, paypal might work if you have an active account. And, if you want a great BnB in Orvieto, steps away from the cathedral with the nicest host, I recommend La Magnolia. And now, I am going to have a couple glasses of CALIFORNIA wine.
EDIT: SEE UPDATE BELOW