Italian Toll Road help please
 

We will be driving from near Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Riva del Garda, Italy in September, I've done MapQuest and it shows quite a few toll roads in Italy, has anyone made that drive or a similar one? Just curious about the $ of the tolls, do we need a pass or are there toll booths that accept Euros? We know about the Vignette needed to drive on the major roads thru Austria but have never encountered toll roads in our travels in Europe. Thanks in advance for any information or help you can provide.
Susan

try www.mappy.com

Viamichelin will also plot a route and tell toll charges. My experience of toll roads is a barrier where you take a ticket, and usually a manned booth at the other end, although I have come across automated "Throw coins into tray" booths as well.

thanks lincasanova and willit, just was wondering what to expect and will take a look at both mappy.com and the viamichelin sites.

We just returned from a 2 week tour that began in Munich and went to Salzburg, drove down to Venice, Florence, Provence and drove the various toll roads. We had cash (euros) and coins.
I remember in Italy that most roads began with a ticket and ended with a booth manned by a person or automated cash/coin receiver that made change. Also, there were credit card options also in case you didn't have cash. Some of the tolls went up to 10-15 euros depending on how far you traveled on the autostrade. We also bought the sticker in Austria (7 euros for 10 day sticker, I think). Hope this helps!

Thanks metry2....we'll just have lots of change available and should be OK. I did do both mappy & viamichelin and they do provide the tolls. Thanks everyone.
Susan

Just drove from Rome to Budapest in May. We didn't have a single Euro on us; we used our credit card with zero problems. The toll roads are a piece of cake.

you will need tons of change for European tolls if they are anything like Spanish ones! (Check mappy.com for girona-alicante, for example)

Your credit card will be fine. First you must figure out which LANES they will take the card in. beware of the Fast track lanes..they will have a special symbol foreign to you.

The autostrade (motorways or tolls roads) in Italy have efficient payment systems. Most but not all are subject to tolls. There are four payment systems - cash (only Euros), semi-automated system accepting credit and debit cards as well as their own Viacard (you can by a version of this with a fixed amount of money on it), semi-automated system accepting coins (these are only on a small number of exits) and the fully automated system where you have an on-board device which enables you to drive through a specially designated lane without stopping. The cash lane which is manned will also take your credit or debit card.
Some sections of the autostrade have fixed charges where as normally you will take a ticket on entry and hand this over or insert it in the machine on exit.
Using a card is recommended as it avoids the queues in the cash lanes.
Finally many sections of the autostrade have a speed checking device called TUTOR. This automatically registers numberplates and checks them again after a number of kilometers and works out your average speed. If over the limit you will be sent a fine. The system does not always check the same sections but (probably because of processing power reasons) varies the sections it measures throughout the day. Do not believe that speeds are not being measured if some fool is rushing along.

The toll booths are just like the toll booths in other countries. I use the automatic credit card lanes.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3322/...73ac3abcf4.jpg

This picture shows the cash lane on the right, two blue ones for cards and three yellow ones for fully automated payment.

If you are unfamiliar with the system, it is usually simplest to go to the booth with a human toll taker in it., even if there is a queue. You will see a picture of a man's hand, not just a picture of cash money:

http://images.travelpod.com/users/jc...ooth-jesus.jpg

The cash lanes are always shown with a white sign. I would skip using a credit card if you are new to the system. It is easy to spot and avoid the "TELEPASS" lane.

As willt noted, sometimes the only option you will be offered is an automated booth, where you insert your ticket and the amount you owe will be flashed at you. The machines will accept bills as well as coins, and give you the change in coins.

Very convenient links nochblad and zeppole

Here's Slow Travel's page on driving in Italy, with lots of photos and information including navigating toll booths: www.slowtrav.com/italy/driving/index.htm

You guys! It's not rocket science, honestly. If my husband & I could do it without any pre-planning or guidance, I assure you that anybody can.

Thanks again! You guys are the greatest, it was helpful to see the pics of the toll booths nochblad and zeppole, Mimar, thanks for the slowtrav link, lots of good info on it. You're right LucieV it's not rocket science but I asked for the help and appreciate it. I'm sure we won't have any problems but just wanted to know what we were up against and what to anticipate toll-wise. We have driven in Europe many, many times but only one time in Italy several years ago and then we were on back roads and didn't use the autostada. Kudos to all.
Susan