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Italian Journeys can arrange a hire car for you to rent, and offers a choice of sports cars, people carriers and executive saloons as well as standard models. Click on this enquiry link for further details of car hire in Italy.
To help you when driving in Italy, Matteo Latini, Reservations Consultant at Italian Journeys has written a brief introduction.
"Driving in Italy is often considered by most foreign visitors the ‘real test’, and anticipated with trepidation during their stay in this beautiful country.
Let’s face it, we Italians do not have a very good reputation as drivers, it being widely believed that unfounded confidence translates into excessive risk-taking. Hopefully, with a bit of an insight on our road manners and customs while behind the steering wheel, you will be better prepared for the ‘test’!
With these brief notes, I am hoping to give you tips on the following:
- Right of way and roundabouts
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Speed limits and distances
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Seatbelts, child seats and booster seats
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Pedestrians and Warning
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ZTLs
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Parking
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Driving on motorways, ‘superways’ and other roads
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Alcohol limits
As in most other countries in Europe, Italians drive on the ‘right’ (hand) side of the road. So at junctions, you should always give way to cars coming from your right, unless you are on a main road where you normally have right of way. Having said this, do look carefully at signs and follow those indications.
In recent years, Italian roads have seen roundabouts cropping up like mushrooms everywhere: in the middle of towns, between towns, off motorway junctions and so on. And to make things simple to everyone (hardly an Italian tradition when it comes to roads), it was also decided to change the right of way system! The current one says that when you arrive at a roundabout you should stop before engaging it and give way to the cars that are already going round it. Now, having said this, most people tend to interpret this rule as a first come, first served basis, therefore the one who is quicker to engage the roundabout has right of way. Nothing to worry about, it will only take you a couple of roundabouts to understand how things work!
One thing to be careful on is indicators… not all Italians like to use them and some of us are not very diligent when it comes to letting other people know which direction we want to take; therefore it is always better to be on the safe side and keep a safe distance from the car in front of you.
Speed Limits and distances
Speed limits in Italy are as follows: - Cities: 50 km/h
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Out-of-town roads: 90 km/h
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Superstrade: 110 km/h
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Motorways: 130 km/h
Distances are always expressed in kilometres and metres; forget miles and yards… that’s something we Italians tend not to understand, even though it was the Romans who gave them to you!
Seatbelts, Child seats and Booster seats
Use of seatbelts is obligatory in the front seats as well in the back. Pregnant women must also fasten seat bealts.
Children weighing less than 18 kilos must travel on a child seat. For weight between 18 and 36 kilos, a booster seat must be used. People who are 1.5 metres or more must use seat belts.
Pedestrians and Warning
Drivers must give way to pedestrians that are walking on zebra crossings. However, when you are a pedestrian, it is unwise to rely on Italian drivers obeying this rule in every case.
It is obligatory to have in your car a triangle and a florescent vest that you can use in case of breakdown stopping or in a dangerous place.
ZTL
This acronym stands for Zona a Traffico Limitato, which basically means that you need a permit to enter that particular area of the city, usually the city centre. It is roughly like the London Congestion Charge zone, with the difference that the permit cannot be obtained for tourism reasons and hire-cars do not have them. There are signs to warn you that you are getting close to a ZTL before you actually reach it, so stay clear of these areas if you want to avoid fines!
Parking
The lack of parking spaces in every Italian town is one of the recurrent complaints of any good Italian. To try mixing in with the locals, when you get the chance, why not complain about them?
First of all, when parking your car make sure you read the signs nearby; the space you want to occupy might be reserved for a protected category of drivers (disabled, residents, etc.) or you may be allowed to park there only for limited periods or in certain hours of the day. Check to avoid fines!
In most towns there are parking spaces in central areas, but of course you have to pay to leave your car there and fees can be quite high and vary from town to town You can recognise these types of parking by the blue lines painted on the road. Usually you will find pay-and-display-machines not too far from where you park, but make sure you have some coins on hand as in most cases they will not accept notes!
The parking areas with white lines are free of charge, and it is generally true that there are few of them around.
Driving on Motorways, “Superways” and other roads
Italian Roads are divided into 3 main categories:
• State/provincial roads (SS/SP): usually roads connecting smaller towns going through villages and rural areas.
• Superways: this is not a new super-hero but a not very effective translation of the Italian name Superstrada, which is basically a motorway on a smaller scale, and toll-free.
• Motorways: large roads usually with 2 to 4 lanes per direction. To use motorways you need to pay a toll.
When travelling on all non-urban roads (i.e. all three categories mentioned above), it is now compulsory to travel with headlights on at all times.
State/provincial roads (SS/SP)
These roads are a good option if you want to enjoy the landscape. The speed limits are lower, usually 90 km/h, but always check road signs as limits tend to change frequently on these roads. Beware of lorries and trucks though. It is usually difficult to overtake on these roads and you might be stuck behind them for a while before being able to overtake them.
Superstrade
The speed limit on Superstrade is 110 km/h. The code of conduct in these roads is basically the same for motorways but do pay more attention when driving on them as lanes ar narrower, there are more curves and there is usually more traffic. The good news is that they are toll-free!
Motorways
Driving on a motorway is often thought to be a piece of cake... well, it is if you well awake and know what to do and how.
First of all: how do you recognise motorways in Italy? They are easily spotted because they are the only roads to have green and white signs (green background and white letters). They are named with acronyms made up of the letter A and a number (A1, A14, A4, etc...) where the letters stand for the word Autostrada, motorway in Italian. The speed limit is 130 km/h.
The second easy way to spot them is that you have to pay to drive in them... Toll-gates (in Italian, casello, or caselli in the plural) can be found at every entrance and exit. Once you reach the casello make sure you do not enter the motorway via the yellow lane unless you are at home in Italy and are equipped with Telepass unit. Yellow lanes are in fact reserved for those cars equipped with Telepass, a small device which signs you in and out of the motorway every time you use it and sends the bill directly at home.
So you would normally have to use the other lanes and take a ticket from a machine. Make sure you keep the ticket as you will need it at the exit casello to pay the right fare. You can pay by credit card or cash and use the manned gates or the automatic ones. They can be recognised from a distance looking at the sign on top of each lane.
Driving on the motorway is fairly straightforward, a couple of tips we would like to share with you are: - Don`t get scared by people who like to come way too close to the back of your car before overtaking... some people like to do that but their bark is worse than their bite!
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Make sure you know where you are. On the left hand side of the motorway you will see signs with distances from exits and main cities; these are white signs on green backgrounds. The black and white part of the same sign will tell you your position. Knowing your position will be usefule in case you need to call emergency services. Every few kilometers you will see yellow phones with a red S.O.S. writing on them. You can use them in case of need to call emergency services. Emergency calls are free and the numbers needed are: 112 for the police, 115 for the brigade and 118 for the ambulance service.
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803116 is the emergency number to call if you break down. Through this number, the nearest ACI (Automobile Club d'Italia) office will be alerted and they will despatch a mechanic to help you. The service is available 24 hours, but it is not free.
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Don`t expect all motorways in Italy to be a long stretch of straight roads. Many of the coastal ones and those on the Po valley are, but the ones in the Northern mountains and those crossing the country between the East and the West are often narrower and with lot of curves.
Alcohol limits are lower in Italy than they are in the UK. In 2007 the limit was taken down to 0.5 grams per litre (in the UK the limit is 0.8 g/l). Translated into glasses, it corresponds to about two small beers or two small glasses of wine, so a zero-intake policy is strongly recommended.
Police in Italy do not need a specific reason to stop cars. They can carry out random checks on drivers for drugs and alcohol, and lately they have indeed been doing so. Depending on the amount of alcohol found in the driver`s body, fines can range from a heavy €500 fine plus suspension of the driving licence for up to 6 months, to 6 months detention and suspension of the driving licence for up to 2 years.
So if you are going to a wine tasting, or planning a night out with a nice, Italian-style meal accompanied by a bottle of good wine, make sure you have a local taxi company`s number with you or have arranged a tranfer back to your accommodation.
Making the effort to drive whilst you are on holiday in Italy is certainly worthwhile. Not only does hiring a car enable you to search your hotel, apartment or villa, it also gives you the opportunity to explore this most beautiful of countries. Buona fortuna!"
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