Driving in Italy

Briefing

Driving in Italy works fine on the autostrada and turns into a defensive sport everywhere else. The country runs on the Codice della Strada, which was overhauled by Law 177/2024 and the new rules took effect on 14 December 2024.

The reform left the headline limits alone (50 km/h in built-up areas, 90 on secondary extraurban roads, 110 on main extraurban roads, 130 on the autostrada — with a still-largely-theoretical 150 km/h ceiling allowed on three-lane motorways with section-control gantries under art. 142) but tightened almost every penalty around them.

The single thing most foreigners get caught by is the ZTL (Zona a Traffico Limitato). Roma Centro Storico, Firenze, Bologna, Pisa, Siena, Lucca, Verona and most other historic cores are camera-enforced — the cameras read your plate, the comune sends the verbale to the rental company months later, and the rental company forwards it to you with a roughly EUR 50 admin fee tacked on.

The fine itself runs about EUR 80 to EUR 335 in Rome; Roma's Fascia Verde environmental zone is a separate, much harsher EUR 163 to EUR 658 ticket. Milan layers two zones: Area C (the small congestion charge ring at EUR 7.50 per day Monday-Friday) and Area B (the city-wide low-emission zone).

Mayor Sala extended Area C payment to weekends from 1 January 2026.

The autostrada is mostly tolled. Most concessions average roughly 7-8 cents per kilometre plus 22 percent VAT — call it EUR 7 to EUR 8 per 100 km on the A1 Autostrada del Sole or A4 Milano-Venezia, more on the A22 Brennero through the Dolomites.

Cash and cards work at the casello; Telepass is the contactless transponder Italians use to skip the queue. Speed enforcement is heavy: the autovelox network is dense and the Tutor system on busier sections measures your average speed between gantries, so braking before the camera does nothing.

Two quirks worth knowing. First, right-of-way on roundabouts is not universal — about a third of older roundabouts still give priority to vehicles entering, signage decides.

Second, the 2024 reform pushed phone-use fines from EUR 165 to a minimum of EUR 250 with automatic licence suspension on first offence, and BAC is now zero for the first three years on any new licence, not just the first year.