Under a Tuscan Traffic Camera - Another Tourist Tax

[Renato1]

I just got my 109 Euro fine today from my trip to Siena last year, for driving on a road I wasn't authorised to drive on.

I also got the same type fine from Pisa back in 2007.

You have to pay the fine, as it increases in value to over double the amount if you don't pay it quickly, then the bill is sent to Hertz who charge your credit card, together with a 25 or 30 Euro Admin fee.

Now - I can read Italian. If I saw a well placed sign on the road saying "Do Not Enter Here, unless Authorised", well, I wouldn't enter the road.

The lack of such obvious signs strikes me as a great way for those Tuscan cities to extract a little more out of visiting tourists.

Anybody else been pinged over there?
Regards,
Renato

 

[opusman]

Ah, the dreaded ZTL!

A couple of years ago I got a notice from Avis (along with a 40 EUR admin fee) that my details had been requested - but I never received the actual fine. Not sure if they decided it wasn't worth the trouble or if I'll be arrested next time I set foot in Italy.

Ironically, it was for driving through a teeny tiny ZTL (about 25 metres long) on my way to return the car to Avis in Rome.

 

[windycityf]

Hi Renato I got hit with one for driving in a ZTL in Florence. I got hit with both the fine and the admin from Avis. It stinks.

 

[Renato1]

Ah, the dreaded ZTL!

A couple of years ago I got a notice from Avis (along with a 40 EUR admin fee) that my details had been requested - but I never received the actual fine. Not sure if they decided it wasn't worth the trouble or if I'll be arrested next time I set foot in Italy.

Ironically, it was for driving through a teeny tiny ZTL (about 25 metres long) on my way to return the car to Avis in Rome.

That's outrageous. Interesting that you missed out on the fine though.
I forgot to mention that I also had to pay Hertz the Admin fee for when the city asked for my details.
Regards,
Renato

Hi Renato I got hit with one for driving in a ZTL in Florence. I got hit with both the fine and the admin from Avis. It stinks.

Thanks - yet another unhappy Tuscan experience/tax.
Regards,
Renato

 

[RooFlyer]

My story.

Two months after arriving home after visiting Spain using an Avis car, I noticed that my CC had been billed something like 75 Euros, with explanation unintelligible on the statement, so I called the credit card company, asking what it was. Charge originated with Avis, they said. I assumed it was a late 'damage' try-on, so I refused the charge, but they said I had to attempt to resolve with Avis first.

OK, I e-mailed the address on the original Avis statement (which was a UK e-mail address), asking what was up (I genuinely didn't have any idea).

No reply in 3 weeks, so I went back to the cc and said "I tried, but no explanation" - so they took the charge off and I heard nothing back from them.

A week after that last call to the cc company, a letter arrived in the post. It was in Spanish, but I figured out it was the documentation for a fine for me driving up a non authorised route in Seville (I remembered it, then - the backstreets were crazy one-ways and my GPS kept telling me to go straight up the main drag, which had recently been turned into a bus route by the look of it. I got fed up with it all and just drove up the bus route, as did many others, I noticed ).

Unfortunately I accidently threw the letter out, so I had no way to reference paying the fine.

 

[Ric]

2013 I got hit with one for driving in Florence and 2014 another one for driving in Pisa!! 3 pairs of eyes looking and we couldn't see the signs!!
Apparently there were signs as they sent a photo of them together with the fine!!

 

[RB]

I just got my 109 Euro fine today from my trip to Siena last year, for driving on a road I wasn't authorised to drive on.

I also got the same type fine from Pisa back in 2007.

You have to pay the fine, as it increases in value to over double the amount if you don't pay it quickly, then the bill is sent to Hertz who charge your credit card, together with a 25 or 30 Euro Admin fee.

Now - I can read Italian. If I saw a well placed sign on the road saying "Do Not Enter Here, unless Authorised", well, I wouldn't enter the road.

The lack of such obvious signs strikes me as a great way for those Tuscan cities to extract a little more out of visiting tourists.

Anybody else been pinged over there?
Regards,
Renato

Maybe you were dozing as you drove past the "obvious sign"!

 

[Renato1]

My story.

Two months after arriving home after visiting Spain using an Avis car, I noticed that my CC had been billed something like 75 Euros, with explanation unintelligible on the statement, so I called the credit card company, asking what it was. Charge originated with Avis, they said. I assumed it was a late 'damage' try-on, so I refused the charge, but they said I had to attempt to resolve with Avis first.

OK, I e-mailed the address on the original Avis statement (which was a UK e-mail address), asking what was up (I genuinely didn't have any idea).

No reply in 3 weeks, so I went back to the cc and said "I tried, but no explanation" - so they took the charge off and I heard nothing back from them.

A week after that last call to the cc company, a letter arrived in the post. It was in Spanish, but I figured out it was the documentation for a fine for me driving up a non authorised route in Seville (I remembered it, then - the backstreets were crazy one-ways and my GPS kept telling me to go straight up the main drag, which had recently been turned into a bus route by the look of it. I got fed up with it all and just drove up the bus route, as did many others, I noticed ).

Unfortunately I accidently threw the letter out, so I had no way to reference paying the fine.

Yes, I've had two GPS navigators telling me to drive into historic town centres, where the signs said not to go - in Bolgna, Verona and Biel. That's what I like - clearly marked signs.

Does it mean that Avis had to wear your fine?
Regards,
Renato

 

[RooFlyer]

Don't know, but I didn't! Didn't hear anything from them afterwards, and I rent regularly from them.

This was the last trip I relied totally on a GPS. I've always had a paper map handy since. A GPS is great for getting OUT of a medieval town (where you just have to keep going outwards and eventually you'll reach a modern road) but at any other time, you may know where you are going (or think you do), but you don't really know where you are.

 

[Renato1]

2013 I got hit with one for driving in Florence and 2014 another one for driving in Pisa!! 3 pairs of eyes looking and we couldn't see the signs!!
Apparently there were signs as they sent a photo of them together with the fine!!

I forgot to mention that my wife is pretty eagle-eyed with respect to traffic signs, so that we had two pairs of eyes looking for signs -comparable to your three pairs.

I notice that Italy likes to be very sparse with signs and traffic signals, unlike here and in the USA. When approaching a relatively major intersection controlled by a traffic light - that's it - one traffic light pointing in our direction, unlike here where we are used to at least two, or sometimes four or six sets of lights.

As I said in the post above, Verona and Bologna doesn't have such confusion with it's no-go streets. Strange how cities in Tuscany do.
Regards,
Renato

Maybe you were dozing as you drove past the "obvious sign"!

The area where I was pinged was on tarred road well before the historic cobbled road, just up from our hotel. We walked through there half a dozen times during our stay there - and didn't see any signs on those occasions either.

Pretty hard to doze through there seven times.
Regards,
Renato

Don't know, but I didn't! Didn't hear anything from them afterwards, and I rent regularly from them.

This was the last trip I relied totally on a GPS. I've always had a paper map handy since. A GPS is great for getting OUT of a medieval town (where you just have to keep going outwards and eventually you'll reach a modern road) but at any other time, you may know where you are going (or think you do), but you don't really know where you are.

Well, you've been fortunate with respect to that fine. Interesting the no-consquences so far.

The navigator I used for the last few years was a useless Navigon - it had no problem getting me into an old walled town, but it couldn't pick up the signal when i wanted to leave. I just had to take pot luck and head in one direction until it finally got the signal.

I was amazed back in 2005 when I went to Italy, to discover that they didn't have street directories - when I mentioned stuff like our Melways and Sydways - I just got blank looks. It took me a while to finally get an explanation about how they managed to find their way to somewhere they were unfamilair with.
Regards,
Renato

 

[Steady]

Maybe you were dozing as you drove past the "obvious sign"!

I hear no-doz helps with alertness

 

[marki]

Ouch ..... No

 

[ellen10]

We got a fine for driving in a bus lane in Glasgow for 3 seconds.
Yes they sent a picture with a noted time on it. We were making a lefthand turn into a little side street.
No choice but to pay the fine and admin fee.

 

[Renato1]

I hear no-doz helps with alertness

It sure does, just ask Senator Hinch.
But if signs aren't present, or they are but are not obvious, a whole packet of No-Doz isn't going to help.
Regards,
Renato

We got a fine for driving in a bus lane in Glasgow for 3 seconds.

Yes they sent a picture with a noted time on it. We were making a lefthand turn into a little side street.
No choice but to pay the fine and admin fee.

Ouch. Looks like Glasgow and Tuscany have something in common.
Cheers,
Renato

 

[mannej]

It sure does, just ask Senator Hinch.
But if signs aren't present, or they are but are not obvious, a whole packet of No-Doz isn't going to help.
Regards,
Renato

Just as No-Doz isn't a miracle tablet for those wanting to drive long distances without a breakðŸ

 

[Renato1]

I just checked my credit card - total cost was $161.58 for the fine.

That should mean another 161 Qantas FF points earned.
Yippee!
Cheers,
Renato

 

[Steady]

I just checked my credit card - total cost was $161.58 for the fine.

That should mean another 161 Qantas FF points earned.
Yippee!
Cheers,
Renato

how does that compare with an Aussie traffic fine?

 

[Renato1]

Just as No-Doz isn't a miracle tablet for those wanting to drive long distances without a breakðŸ

If people want to drive around in a lower state of alertness due to some driver fatigue or a heavy lunch, and kill themselves and others, well that's not my problem.

Last prang I had was in Italy three years ago, where an old geezer suicidally drove through a STOP sign - where he couldn't possibly have seen what was coming - and hit my Audi A4. He was supposed to have stopped and looked at the mirrors on the other side of the road, to see if anyone was coming. I wish someone had shoved some No-Doz into him before letting him on the road.
Cheers,
Renato

how does that compare with an Aussie traffic fine?

That's slightly less than being booked in Victoria for doing up to 10Kph above the speed limit.

Though my relatives tell me that typically (in their region -Veneto) fines for speeding can be in the many hundreds of Euros. Until recently, that wasn't much of a deterrent as tehre weren't many cameras around. But their numbers have been increasing and people there plainly aren't driving as fast as they did 11 years ago when I first started driving there - though, in general, they are still crazy compared to typical Aussie drivers.
Regards,
Renato

 

[Steady]

how does that compare with an Aussie traffic fine?

That's slightly less than being booked in Victoria for doing up to 10Kph above the speed limit.

Though my relatives tell me that typically (in their region -Veneto) fines for speeding can be in the many hundreds of Euros. Until recently, that wasn't much of a deterrent as tehre weren't many cameras around. But their numbers have been increasing and people there plainly aren't driving as fast as they did 11 years ago when I first started driving there - though, in general, they are still crazy compared to typical Aussie drivers.
Regards,
Renato

then while not a pleasant pill to swallow, at least it's comparable