counsel = lawyer,

No - Avis won't pay the fins and charge your credit card. What they will do is charge you an "admin fee" for providing your contact info/address/etc. to the Italian authorities. That admin fee can be around $70-$80.

Thanks J62. So maybe I should start to try and find a Italian lawyer or one thats in the US? And $80 is the least of my worries in this. Avis also told me there is absolutly no way to find out if I have been fined other than waiting the up to 7 months to get them in the mail, bummer. Either way it goes, it would be soooo much nicer to know sooner.

IMO, it's WAY too early to get an Italian lawyer involved in this. You might not have even been caught or fined. If and when the time comes that you get a hefty bill (and I think it WILL show up on your credit card, because AVIS will pass the problem on to you), call the Italian Embassy or nearest consulate in the USA and ask for their advice. Or call a US attorney who has some specialty in Italian law.

In the meantime, do nothing.

Are you really never planning to leave the USA again? I mean, I guess I can understand not going back to Italy (in which case, frankly, you can just ignore all this - although let me tell you, time has a way of putting you in situations where you find yourself going to other countries you never thought you'd be going to, for the first time or for another go-round...), but really, never leave the country again?

<i><font color=blue>&quot;IMO, it's WAY too early to get an Italian lawyer involved in this.&quot;</font></i>

Oh my goodness! Please, no lawyers.

lost101, take a Xanax.

<i><font color=blue>&quot;Either way it goes, it would be soooo much nicer to know sooner.&quot;</font></i>

No news is good news. Leave it alone and see what happens. Deal with it when you have no other choice. For goodness sakes, don't go looking for trouble. (But do arm yourself with information.)

<i><font color=blue>&quot;Am I the only one who thinks lost is a troll?&quot;</font></i>

They still play that game here after all these years? For shame.

No matter what, this topic will help others.

Well lost101, it is interesting your one and only thread here on Fodor's is about your &quot;speeding in Italy&quot; problem.

Anyway, why don't you post a trip report, it sounds like your trip was interesting. With your very fast driving some of us might be interested how fast you got from one point to another.

kgh8m, saying he doesn't know the difference between kilometres and mile wouldn't help one bit. For a start the speedometer is in KM/hr, and for a second, A Km is only 5/8th of a mile, so 200MPH is considerably faster.

lost 101, stop worrying, you may never get anything (though I sincerely hope you do). If you do pay up and accept you were stupid. If you had been a European you would have lost your licence for driving at that speed.

This is my first and only post because I just signed up and well... this is my first post. I will do a trip thingy after I get this figured out. Anyone know what's the worst that could happen if I didnt pay the fines or not pay all of them keeping in mind I probaly will never return to Europe?

It has been known that Italian Secret Agents, will abduct you in the night, drug you, then get you back to Italy where you will be forced to work off your huge fines working in a Dolce &amp; Gabbana sweat shop in Calabria. You could be missing for years!!!!!...Learn to speak Albanian NOW!!!!

Don't you have a rich Aunt Ida or someone you can get to pay it for you?

The worst: probably that the debt gets passed to a US debt collection agency who will chase you for the money. They'll get your name and address from the car rental agency. But as others have siad, there's no point borrowing trouble - you don't know yet that all the cameras were working.

<i><font color=blue>&quot;This is my first and only post because I just signed up and well... this is my first post.&quot;</font></i>

One might think that such reasonable logic would be considered, well, reasonable. But not here, dear. Maybe not on any internet forum. Trust one of many who have been troll tortured, there's no point defending your &quot;first&quot; post. Much like first love, everyone has to have a first post and endure the pain. (Since some of us are on our 3rd or 4th username - apparently, Thin is on her 20th - with each new name comes a new first post. That means we're all <i>trolls-are-us resurrēctus</i> or is it <i>raiseyerrectum</i>? My Latin slips.)

By nature, there will always be some people who DOUBT (see the movie) and they will never give you any benefit of that doubt. So be it. Those people shouldn't stop anyone from posting their travel horror stories.

One might think, given my car rental experience abroad, that I noticed an <i>autovelox.</i> Well, I haven't. But, thanks to your thread, I will now. As some of us speed through life (within the limit), we're staring at the stars; in Italy, it's the scenery. I don't need your trip report to satisfy me but I do thank you for bringing this subject to my attention.

Lost 101...........Relax, you are worrying way to much over this..as some of the posters indicated, not every camera is functioning at all times, and not every person speeding in Italy gets issued a citation. Dont stress over this, and no, AVIS will not be charged for any speeding infractions and charge your credit card, they only charge for non travel tickets (parking fines and stationary violations). The reason is because as in the USA, you have the opportunity to appeal the citation, of course that is very difficult due to the language barrier. Also, in no way are speeding tickets connected with Customs/Immigrations of the countries of the European Union. You can return to Europe. However, if you receive a speeding citation from Italy and do not pay it, I wouldnt want to get pulled over by the police in Italy in the near future. You will not know for at least 2-3 months if you were ticketed, if and when you do, if possible, if you live near a major city, go to the Italian Embassy in that city for advice. And in no way will any citation be in the thousands of dollars amount, more likely 1-3 hundred dollars. Relax.

Mikek

I agree with mike about relaxing. I do not agree with him about the facts relating to rental companies and how they charge you. Avis WILL in all likelihood charge your credit card (AutoEurope charged mine). See this:

http://www.bella-toscana.com/traffic...ions_italy.htm

I don't have experience driving in Italy, but a few years ago I got caught in the Netherlands. It was intown and I was going 50km/hr in a 35 zone. I was in the wrong but was going no faster than the other traffic. About 2-3 months later, I got a letter from AutoEurope which informed me where and when the infraction occurred and that they were charging me an admin. fee for the paperwork (fair enough) and for the fine which was not too bad, but it included VAT which I thought was double dipping, but what I thought doesn't quite matter. Anyway it ended up costing over $100, but as my students say, &quot;Do the crime, do the time.&quot; I was just grateful that it didn't show up on MA license records.

So I guess that it might depend on your car company whether they pay or you pay direct; AutoEurope put it all on my crdeit card.

Hope all turns out to be within your budget, Lost.

I don't but it. No remorse in breaking the law while in Italy but now you are. Typical Criminal mind. Not sorry for the crime, only in being caught.

stcirk........thanx for being on the same page....but the car rental company can not charge you for a moving violation, they are not authorized to do so as they do not have the powers to enforce motor vehicle violations (moving violations),due to the simple fact, as I stated...the person who is cited, as the right of appeal, and that can only be decided by the locality of where the summons was issued.mikek

DH was pulled over in Basilicata in May. We had to pay a large fine (over 400 euro) on the spot, or they would take him to jail. I cried so hard that they allowed us to follow them to an ATM. His license was taken for 30 days, and returned through the US consulate in Naples.

He was doing 140 where the limit was 90.

Speeding in Italy is as dangerous as speeding in any other place, but in my experience, more costly and with greater penalties.

I think my husband deserved everything he got. I had been asking him to slow down, and reading the signs to him. I even told him that he was scaring me.

I am now sat on 2 x E90 tickets issued 3 months ago and relating to our trip to Elba some 15 months ago.

The situation in Italy is -

they have funded a huge number of grey (not highly visable) speed cameras everywhere. The main motivation behind the expansion is quite openly revenue raising and not the correct the behaviour of drivers. There are even cameras in the bumpers of state owned buses.

The number of tickets issued has risen to such an extent they they do not have the resources to collect. Legally the state has 364 day from the date that they became aware of your contact details to issue the ticket.

Their main source of information are the hire car companies, AVIS are the worst offenders for charging large admin fees for providing the state with your details.

The options for Non EU residents are easy - simply don't pay the damn things - they have no way of logically recovering the fines. The general talk of the internet is that visitors re-entering Italy have not had issues either with the unpaid fines or re-hiring cars.

For EU residents it seems that the Italian state can legally persue debts across intra-EU state borders but again they are not currently doing so.

My tickets were issued for speeds of 56 kmh in 50kmh zones (apparently). Bit difficult to contest this as

1. It was a long time ago
2. I don't even know whether I rented the car stated on the fine
3. If I did rent the car - I have no idea who was driving it.
4. There are no speed limt signs on Elba
5. Whilst on Elba, I was delighted to experience some of the worst driving ever exhibited outside a stock car rally. Overtaking on blind bends in the dark was the norm and the generally accepted common law speed limit was around 120kph in built up areas.

if you do decide to speed or enter restricted city zones simply factor about 10% onto the cost of your trip to cover the fines - as they will catch you.

Another example of the &quot;get rich quick&quot; &quot;camel coat&quot; mentality of the king of tat ( Mr B ).

Our UK based Italian friends simply treat speeding fines as another for of road tax. ie if you have got the cash - speed and pay the fines.

My advice to US visitors is speed everywhere - indeed once you have been photgraphed reverse back up to the camera and wave to get another family shot. In racking up 432 of unrecoverable tickets per trip you will help contribute to bringing the whole cash generating scheme down.

Thanks for all the adivce coming in yall. I appreciate it. Still not sure what I am going to do yet and still very worried about it. I'm not saying one fine is going to be like 30,000. Im saying Im worried that all the fines put together is going to end up being that much or more. A lot of you say they wont persue me if I just didnt pay but if the fines really do end up being like 30k I'd think they would have me red flaged and do any and everything possible to get me. Honestly I dont mind so much if my credit got ruined over it, my fear is getting put in jail over this. When I talked to avis about fines they said they just send me the tickets in the mail and it could take up to a max of 7 months, they didnt say they charged me directly for them. If they fines only end up being 5k or even 10k I'll pay them but if they are like 30k or more I don't know... Im am in the process of researching what happens if I just dont pay but there not much on the net about my particular situation. Also I'm looking at finding a lawyer to get some advice from, just not sure which kind I need to talk to.