at12am

I rented a car in Florence via Autoeuro (or Eurocar, I guess they are the same company) online 4 months ago. It was my first time renting in Europe. When I got there, I paid the road tax and pickup and return on time. Gas was OK too.
Now 4 months past, I got charged again. When I called Autoeuro, they said it was a traffic violation and Eurocar had to release my info to the police and the charge was the Eurocar admin fee. I will eventually get a ticket from the authority.

They said everything is electronic and they might have a picture of the car (for whatever violation, like parking) and it took them weeks to get to Eurocar to find who was in procession of the car at the time of the violation.

I don't remember there was any violation. It was a foreign country 4 months ago, even if I get info of where it happened, I would not know what street and what happened.

How could I contest the ticket? I don't have any information at all and Eurocar does not have any information. All they said is they charge the admin fee and told me to wait.

Does anyone has similar encounter?

LJ

When we got a ticket in Italy (for driving o the Autostrade after 4 pm in the winter without having lights on: $25-30 equiv.), it was due and payable at the local police station. We received a paper ticket on the spot. This is the only kind of ticket I am aware of personally. However, there was a long thread on this some time ago. You could do a search for it OR you could wait and see what, if anything, ever develops. Italian tickets for parking violations are not high amounts, but it is not something you want to have turn up as unpaid at customs if you ever go again to Italy.

at12am

It is good to know the ticket may not be very high. I was kind of worry because Autoeuro charged 36 Euro for the admin fee.

TuckH

It may not be a parking ticket. More likely, you drove in a restricted area reserved for local residents only.

If so, there's no (known) way to contest this infraction.

LJ

You may find this instructive
http://www.bella-toscana.com/traffic...ions_italy.htm

Christina

A lot of countries use cameras to record various traffic violations, including the US and some in Europe, and that includes Italy. So if it were a camera-recorded violation, you wouldn't remember it, how could you? Those can be speeding or parking in a restricted area when it is not allowed. A lot of people drive in foreign countries and don't pay attention to the signs and violate the laws, apparently. You are not the first, a lot of people do it in Florence, they ignore signs which are quite obviously parking restrictions even if you don't know Italian.

Why would you contest the ticket if you are guilty? I thought parking violation tickets in restricted areas are around 50-100 euro in Florence, but I might be wrong. They are real high where I live in the US, also, in some cases in non-residential areas (like parking in a lane where it isn't allowed during rush hour).

Nikki

Did you perhaps rent your car through Autoeurope? They are a consolidator and they connect their customers with cars through various rental agencies, one of which is Europcar. Is that what you did? If so, they are not the same company.

The traffic violation was very likely captured by a camera and you may not have noticed at the time. I have heard of this happening to others, several of whom have written about it on Fodors.

When we were in France last year, we passed a speed camera and it flashed and we noticed it. We had rented a Europcar vehicle through Autoeurope and I have been waiting to hear anything but so far, so good. Actually we were caught by two cameras, but one was not our fault, really it wasn't, it was the motorcycle who passed us just at the camera's point.

I told my husband I would be happy to go back to France to fight the ticket, just tell me when.

at12am

I guess possible violations would be:
1) Parked inside Montepulciano, in front of the hotel. There were parking space and the hotel owner approved or did not say anything

2) Parked for 15 mins to unload luggage in the square in front of the hotel inside San Gimignano (restricted for local residents), which was what the hotel instructed us to do. On the day of the check-out, there was barricades for the farmer's market. We had to stopped just outside of the square but inside the town to get our luggage. It is not quite possible to carry all luggages and walk (15 mins walk hills and stairs) to the parking outside of the town wall. There were some police there.

This is kind of upsetting and makes me hesitant in renting again in Europe. But it is not as fun touring parts of Europe without driving.

ira

Hi at,

In a few weeks you will get a letter telling you that you were caught by a camera dong something that you shouldn't have done.

It could have been:
Driving in a pedestrian zone
Parking in a no parking zone
Going the wrong way on a 1 way street
Speeding
etc

Pay the ticket.

stfc

ira's right. Put it in that big book labelled experience. It is quite normal to wait a few months while their system catches up with you.

I assume you live in the US or Canada. If it is any satisfaction one of the glories of the EU is that overseas traffic violations/fines are now being being sent to EU citizens' homes and are quite difficult to ignore. There's no escaping Big Brother.

janisj

The charge from the rental agency is just for them providing your info to the Italian authorities. That is totally legit.

You will also get a bill for the ticket w/i the next few months. You really can't "dispute" it unless you plan on going back and attend a hearing in person.

You can choose not to pay it if you never plan on driving in Italy in the future. And w/ cooperation w/i the EU - it might affect you in other countries as well. (I would pay it myself)

That is just a fact of life re driving in Europe - they have cameras all over plus lots of traffic wardens. You don't need to have a paper ticket for it to be a violation.

kerouac

Photographic radar fines are becoming generalized in Europe. I'm sure it won't be long before we all sign a direct debit authorization with our bank details when signing a rental contract.

And frankly, I approve.

Texastrips

I would bet it's for driving in a restricted zone - very common error for foreign tourists in Florence and other cities. You'll find elaborate discussions of it too on the Italy forum on the slow travel website.

I would say however, that whatever the cause a ticket - although annoying - should be paid. Ignorance isn't a defence for violating the traffic laws of another country. There's no reason to think there's any reason to contest it.

Wekiva

Texastrips

You state

"Ignorance isn't a defence for violating the traffic laws of another country. There's no reason to think there's any reason to contest it."

But that assumes that "big brother" is always right...which we know simply isn't the case. I agree the ticket should be paid because it would be too difficult to try and fight it. But the idea that if you get a ticket in Europe then it's obviously your fault because you're an ignorant tourist is silly.

J62

Welcome to the club. What irked me is that the proprietor of a hotel or apartment is supposed to be able to register your vehicle so you can enter the zone. The unhelpful staff at the apt I rented gave me lip service when I asked them to register my vehicle, ranging from "write down the info, we'll take care of it" to "you don't need to register, we aren't in the restricted zone" to "non parlo inglese" - all from the same person.

CarolA

I got hit with a charge recently for this.

Ran a toll booth in Florida in a rental car months ago.

So even here it takes a while for the wheels to grind and the rental car company to deal with this.


(Yes I knew I did it, it was unmanned I had no change. I just paid the fee!)

zeppole

Unless you know for certain where you were fined, I wouldn't jump to conclusions you were fined in places people were in a position to warn you about but didn't. Italians warn me all the time not to park in spots they see me backing into -- and I warn other people! Hotel owners often get very excited if you start to park illegally and are your guest. They sooner want to take the hotel keys from you.

I don't how many kilometres those of you who got fined drove while in Italy, and how many times you parked your car, but add the two numbers together, and that is roughly how many chances you had to break Italian (or French) law without realizing it. It's not because these countries are more rule heavy than New York City (not by a long shot), it's just that driving in a foreign country where you don't speak the language makes it easy to commit a violation without having a clue.

zeppole

Ooops! I meant to write that hotel owners would rather take your keys and park your car for you than risk you parking it illegally, where either you'll get fined or they'll get complained to.

longboatkey

Pay it, and consider the fine part of your cost of travel!

Texastrips

I didn't say any such thing. I did note the person here is talking about how to contest a ticket without having any idea of what the violation was - in the vast majority of cases, when you get a traffic ticket here or overseas, it's because you violated the traffic laws in that place.