i really need some help with this one. i started to recieve notices that the rental car company was billing me an administrative fee for tckets i was about to get in italy. well, true to its word, the first one came last week (8 months after the fact) and i have three more on the way. they were all camera tickets. we have those here in ohio and what a pain in the rear end. anyway, in doind research, i have seen that they are issued by a collection agency in italy. i am not worried about the credit impact but rather the $600 euro that i may have to pay for them. i also saw in other posts that people have not paid them. all of the tickets are for "being in a carriage way" and it was probably for mass transit vehicles. my mistake but, holy crap $600 euro. seems a bit excessive. anybody just not paid them and walked away. i know this makes me a bad tourist but i am looking for some direction.

I haven't noticed posts where people didn't pay these tickets. I have noticed posts where people didn't want to pay them.

As I understand it, the car rental company will come after you because the tickets were issued to a car belonging to them. I might be wrong, but that's the way I understood it.

Were you in Florence when you got these tickets? I understand that it is more common to get tickets for driving in restricted zones. I'm not sure about mass transit lanes, but I am sure about the restricted zones.

If someone was successful not paying 5 years ago, that won't mean much. Based on other reports, the databases across Europe are becoming more integrated. I'd also consider the consequences of cumulative penalties and interest if you fail to pay, although I don't know what these amount to. How quickly will 600 Euros double?

i was in florence for these infractions. i may try an appeal and see if that works. also was wondering if there is a way to obtain the actual photos that were taken. the country was very beautiful and would like to go back there. i may have to bite the bullet and pay

This isn't the response you are looking for, but:

4 violations? If so, 600 euro total for all 4 tickets doesn't seem that bad considering that a red light near where I live will cost somewhere around $250 each.

Good luck with whatever you do. You might find in the end that 600 euros would be the least of your worries should you find yourself needing to rent another car again (especially anywhere in the EU) or when you really will need to be concerned about your credit history.

Read a very detailed discussion in
http://www.bella-toscana.com/traffic...ions_italy.htm

Agree that 600 for 4 moving violations is cheap. We pay $150 and up for regular parking tickets ($250 and up if at a hydrant or handicapped spot).

I have some outstanding tickets in Italy from 30 years ago. I hope they don't catch up with me.

I do not know about Italian collection agencies, but you can negotiate with American collection agencies. You can also check you credit reports and see what is occuring.

buona fortuna

30 years ago we did not have today technical knowledge, Aduchamp..Was easier to cheat or to commit a crime then..

Ignore it. Read http://www.bella-toscana.com/traffic...ions_italy.htm. There's nothing they can do about it and the charges are not reasonable.

Interesting...just decided I will never rent a car in Italy.

I was in Florence last year, from July 18 - 20. This year, on July 18, I receive a notification of a ticket from a moving violation on July 20, 2010. There is nothing stopping these countries from just sending ticket after ticket. I am not paying mine and I spoke with a friend of mine who went to Italy 5 years ago. He received 5 or 6 moving violations that came in the mail months later and he didn't pay them either and the mailings stopped. They did not charge his credit card. Whether it will affect his ability to rent a car there again has yet to be seen.

Your car rental agency will probably come after you through your credit card. They don't always do it, but they can and will. You do have the right to appeal, but it can be a hassle. I know I appealed a parking ticket in Edinburgh a few years back and luckily I not only had the original parking receipt but also for some reason I took a picture of the car, which clearly showed the stub on the dash. Luckily I won, but it took me almost a year to get my money back.

azzure, these violations occur in the central cities, because there are Zones of Traffic Limitation (ZTL) there. It is fairly easy to violate the ZTL, as they are not marked clearly enough to alert confused foreign tourists. We are anxiously waiting till Sept, hoping that the 1 year limit on charging us expires before the get around to it. (We got lost in Bologna because our driving directions told us to turn left when the correct route was to the right, and we apparently blundered into a ZTL.)

But driving outside of major cities is NOT a big deal as far as tickets go. We drive all over outside the cities and never have a problem in more than a dozen visits for three weeks each.

So many of these threads, all starting with someone thinking they don't have to pay traffic tickets. It's so odd. You get a traffic ticket here, you have to pay it. Why would Italy be different?
Likewise we have driven there repeatedly with no problem and there's no reason not to drive there.
The ZTL thing is tricky (we drove into one by accident in Cassino of all places this summer and await the outcome) but that doesn't mean it's unfair, unreasonable or you shouldn't pay. If I get a ticket from Cassino, it's indisputable that I committed an infraction and we'll have to pay it and deal with our frustration. (I could say I shouldn't have to because we were following signs to the tourist office which took us down that street. lol. So was the signage unhelpful. Yes. Did we commit an infraction. Yes. Are we liable to pay any ticket. Yes.)
Plus I think you could easily run up 600 euros worth with four traffic tickets here - not sure why that seems so out of line. Traffic tickets are frustrating, here, there, every place, but there's no reason not to pay unless you did not actually commit the violation. And as with many laws here too, ignorance of it isn't an excuse.

http://tinyurl.com/3fj3du2. If you don't know what a red circle means you have no business driving in Europe.

Spaarne - do you have a photo showing the sign for " being in a carriage way?" I guess that's the bus lane. Seems a lot of incoming tickets are for that violation, in addition to crossing into the dreaded ZTLs. Thanks!

charnees - Azzure posted two years ago.

>>>But driving outside of major cities is NOT a big deal as far as tickets go. We drive all over outside the cities and never have a problem in more than a dozen visits for three weeks each.<<<

There are cameras outside the major cities also. On the sides of highways that snap your pic for speeding.

>>>Spaarne - do you have a photo showing the sign for " being in a carriage way?" I guess that's the bus lane.<<<

There are a couple of bus lanes near the Florence train station which might be the cause of some tickets. I'm not sure of the signage, but it could be like the sign Spaarne linked, but have a car in the center meaning no cars or it could be blue with a bus in the center meaning bus lane. Scroll down to the blue informative signs.
http://selectitaly.com/pdf/traffic_signs_italy.pdf

Others:
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/road_s..._signs_cr2.htm
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/road_s..._signs_cr3.htm
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/road_s..._signs_cr4.htm
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/road_s..._signs_cr5.htm
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/road_s..._signs_cr6.htm
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/road_s..._signs_cr7.htm
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/road_s..._signs_cr8.htm

Quiz tomorrow

<i>
Janetd5 on Aug 3, 11 at 7:19pm
Spaarne - do you have a photo showing the sign for " being in a carriage way?" I guess that's the bus lane.</i>

I don't know what a carriage way is, except that it means any street or road.

Bus lanes are usually marked with the word BUS. They are usually shared with bicycles, indicated by a bicycle icon. Never park in a bus lane. You will be towed, clamped, or run over by a tank as shown in my Villnius post.

Kybourbon - Thanks for the sites ... did a quick study today, and will revisit the sites before my real quiz when renting a car in Florence in early October! (quick take away: red circles = stay away!) I'm picking up and dropping off the car at the south side city location on Via Gelsomino to avoid the ZTL/one way streets around Borgo Ognissanti.

Spaarne - I'll be looking for the BUS signage! Hopefully it isn't one of ten on a post, and lost in a quick glance while heading south towards Rt 222!