Help - "Traffic Violation" in Italy

thescouselander

I went on a fly-drive holiday to Italy back in may. Just recently I had my credit card charged by the hire car company because they had to supply my details to the local police for some sort of "traffic violation" which was not specified.

I was very careful to stick to the speed limits over there so I dont think it was for speeding. After doing a bit of research on the internet I think its possible that I might of accidently driven into a restricted traffic zone in Pisa. These zones are by no means obvious and I dont recall seeing any signs or anything. Apparently it is very common for tourists to be caught out by this.

Anyway, my question is has anyone else been caught out by this? What happens now, how much is it likely to cost me and is there any way to get out of payng.

I feel the Italian authorities have been very underhand here and have deliberatly set out to trap tourists. Also, to leave things so long before persuing the issue is quite unreasonable - I cant really remember exactly what happened on the day in question.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Stageshoot

Edited

Have a read of

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

And also

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/sep/13/motoring.consumeraffairs


May help

alanrowell

Perhaps you should have put "rip off" in the title.

Basically it's your fault for not knowing the law in Italy. It isn't underhand as they use automatic cameras to catch the transgression so they don't know it's a tourist car (and even then they don't know it's a non-Italian driving it).

I'd stump up and consider it a lesson learnt

thescouselander

alanrowell wrote: »

Perhaps you should have put "rip off" in the title.

Basically it's your fault for not knowing the law in Italy. It isn't underhand as they use automatic cameras to catch the transgression so they don't know it's a tourist car (and even then they don't know it's a non-Italian driving it).

I'd stump up and consider it a lesson learnt

What I call underhand is not signposting the resticted zone adiquately - I'm not psychic, obviously if I knew I wasn't supposed to drive there I wouldn't have.

Also I thought I had researched driving in Pisa and none of the tourist information I had seen mentioned anything about these zones. Its not like driving into the congestion charge zone in London - the signes are very inconspicuous (if they are even there at all).

And yes, I do belive it is a rip off. The Italians know this is a popular tourist destination and that visitors wont always be aware of the restrictions. What other reason could they have for not putting proper signage up other than to collect revenue from tourists.

hewhoisnotintheknow

i would just pay it

TiTheRev

Do the crime, pay the fine

DCFC79

How much is the fine

thescouselander

Just for the record, I am not interested in any posts along the lines of "Do the crime, pay the fine" its not helpful and does not answer my question.

If your not going to be helpful I'll thank you to keep your views to yourself.

terryya

thescouselander wrote: »

Just for the record, I am not interested in any posts along the lines of "Do the crime, pay the fine" its not helpful and does not answer my question.

If your not going to be helpful I'll thank you to keep your views to yourself.

Maybe you should have put in the OP a list of answers you were looking for :rolleyes:

thescouselander

terryya wrote: »

Maybe you should have put in the OP a list of answers you were looking for :rolleyes:

If you read it again, the questions were:

"Anyway, my question is has anyone else been caught out by this? What happens now, how much is it likely to cost me and is there any way to get out of payng."

terryya

thescouselander wrote: »

If you read it again, the questions were:

"Anyway, my question is has anyone else been caught out by this? What happens now, how much is it likely to cost me and is there any way to get out of payng."

Answer - No, if you've done the crime you should pay the fine.