Bolzano Traffic Ticket for Unauthorized Entry to a Restricted Zone

Why don't you appeal by sending a copy of the hotel invoice? Otherwise, welcome to the club.

Yes, welcome to the club of public transportation converts :-)

The hotel says they have to report our license plate to the police within 24 hours so they cannot help.

Does that mean that they have said that they did not report the number to the police on October 10th?

Does your ticket say that the ZTL was where you parked or where you were driving?

Many communities have multiple separate ZTL zones. It is possible that you had permission to be in one ZTL where your hotel was located, but got lost and entered another ZTL. This is pretty common. Or you did not register your car with the hotel. If it is one of these, you are out of luck. If you did register your car with the hotel and didn't stray from the authorized zone, then ideally your hotel would assist you in resolving the issue. But if they won't help you, then you're likely out of luck again.

The ticket/letter only says "unauthorized entry to a limited traffic zone." We parked where the Hotel Citta directed us to park but we had to drive through the city to get there -- I actually think we missed the ramp the first time and had to circle around. The hotel emailed me a copy of the receipt for our time there but I don't see that they took down the car registration information. We don't think they ever asked us for car registration information. I'm thinking of sending a letter of appeal with the receipt from the Hotel-- but I also don't want to incur additional costs.

Did they provide instructions on how to appeal the ticket? That can be a difficult and time consuming process, and not likely the ticket will be cancelled. You may find it helpful to have a look at this website (scroll down to the "Overall Conclusions" box for a summary)......

http://www.bella-toscana.com/traffic_violations_italy.htm#.VW9JTOd_ju0

Unfortunately, driving in some parts of Europe and Italy especially is not the same "carefree experience" as it is in this part of the world, which is why I normally use public transit as much as possible.

I don't know about Bolzano, but in Florence the hotel guest has to give the car info to the hotel (lic. plate number) and the hotel must register the guest's lic. plate info in a special "White List" of the City of Florence Website within 24 hours from the entry within the forbidden traffic zone (ZTL). When that happens the fine is not issued. If you didn't give the car info to the hotel and entered the ZTL, the camera pictured your car and an automatic fine is issued to the car owner. If the car owner is not the driver, then they must communicate who the driver is. In your case, if you had a rental car, the car owner (the rental company) communicated your name to the City and then they forwarded the fine to you (you probably got your credit card charged for an administrative fee by the car rental company too, because they charge a fee for giving your name to the City authorities).

You can try to appeal it and hope in the magnanimous good heart of the Prefect or the Peace Judge (one can appeal to either), however I'm afraid that if the hotel didn't register the guest's car (your car) within 24 hours (or at all), your chances are slim.

Thank you for the replies. We're thinking about issuing a personal check in dollars and sending that along with a letter to the Justice of the Peace saying we were at the hotel, along with the receipt from the hotel showing our payment for those two nights. We would ask in the letter that they grant our appeal and return or destroy the personal check, but that we are sending it so that we do not incur additional costs. (The letter says if paid within 5 days of receipt of the ticket we can deduct 30 percent.). Paying by wire would cost an additional $45. Thoughts? Options?