Good points, Rubicund. Of course, I would also do some due diligence to determine the validity of the charges. But if they are valid, I would pay and move on.

I once received a very large bill for damage to the undercarriage of a rental car I had in NYC. The photos they sent with the bill had big scrapes with red paint on the underside of the car. However, I had not damaged the car, not run over anything and there was no way I'd done the damage. In fact, the dates on the photos pre-dated my rental dates.

One call to the rental company was all it took for them to discover that they had selected the wrong client when charging for the damage. It was damaged by a prior client and they selected my name in error.

It's ALWAYS a good idea to do some investigation.

I am a long-term resident (and citizen) of Italy. Driving in Italy in general is not difficult. I had no trouble driving here when I first arrived, and was able to get an Italian license with no trouble. I've never had an accident or moving violation fine, although I've had a parking fine or two. When I lived in the US, I often drove in Manhattan and in Philadelphia, and several times in Washington, DC, and other US cities.

I would never drive in an Italian city I don't know well. My husband, who is a born and bred Italian would not do so either. We live in Le Marche, and drive everywhere here, including in the city of Ancona, whose streets we know like the backs of our hands. Even in Ancona, my husband once accidentally strayed into a ZTL (limited traffic zone). This was the result of a detour, and he was trying to find his way back to the regular route. He was stopped by a policeman, who agreed that the signs left a lot to be desired and let him off.

We go to Bologna fairly often, but have gone in the car only when we have to return very late, or are just going to the airport, or have to take furniture there, or something of the sort. On all other occasions, we take the train. Once when we went to visit a relative who lives in the center of Bologna, and needed to go in the car, he offered to meet us at the nearest city gate and pilot us in, and we gratefully accepted the offer.

We have never driven into Florence or Rome, cities we visit fairly often. I can't imagine the circumstances that would induce us to drive in Florence. Rome is a little better, because there are some fairly obvious routes that avoid the ZTLs, but the parking problems and the traffic outweigh that. We have driven to Venice, where, since you can't take the car in anyway, it's fairly easy to park outside and take a vaporetto. When we've driven to Venice, we were in groups of at least four people, when the convenience and cost factors make the comparison with the train more favorable. Almost always we take the train to Venice.

Again and again, I read of people planning to use their cars for driving holidays that mostly are planned for cities. I can't understand what would induce people to do this. Between major cities, the high-speed trains are much faster than driving, and the cost is almost always less unless there are three or more people in the car.

Wow! Thank you so much, bvlenci. It is wonderful to have an Italian's view on this.

We typically plan to drive to a city and return the car on arrival. However, that usually involves some city driving.

But your point is well taken.

Hard to investigation when several thousand miles away and a couple of years. The bigger question is what happens next. There are reports on other travel sites of the tickets going to a local collection agency. Now a collection agency cannot do much without a judgement which I think would be difficult to get in the US. However, nothing prevents the collection agency from put a negative report on your credit report. I would check your credit report frequently and protest the instant it hits your file.

US Courts would not have jurisdiction over a foreign traffic violation. No judgment would be available.

It is not a foreign traffic violation. Not a question of law. It is a civil matter. A debt owed. A US firm is bring the question. Would a court order a civil judgement is the question?

I rented a car From Hertz and drove from the Naples airport to Pompeii, to Rome, to Florence, and Venice. I pulled into the wrong toll booth at one point and couldn't pay with money or a credit card, so it printed out a bill for the entire length of the road, an extravagant sum. I took care of this at one of the offices along the toll road. That is the only traffic incident I know of. Well, today I got a letter from Hertz saying that I owed them 30,50 Euro for the time it took them to give my name and address to the Italian police. They referred to previous letters to me from both them and the police. This is the first letter I've received. The letter is mostly in English and tells me to go to one of their web sites for more information. That web site is in Italian. Not having any idea what I'm charged with and what I have to do is very frustrating. Does anyone have any idea other than to go to the Italian consulate

2 ideas:

Post the link here and the Tripadvisor Italy forum to get help with translating the Italian:

Call a hertz office in Italy with an English speaker to ask for help in identifying where you paid the fine and if any record of it can be found. Airport offices are more likely to have English speakers and are usually open continuously.

Buona fortuna.

To other people: If you ever pay a fine wihle traveling in Italy, get receipts, save them or take cell phone pictures of paperwork and the people and offices where you paid the fine, and save those too.

It could well be a scam, and if you never received a ticket, I would not pay it. This is a five year old "supposed" ticket. The so-called "collection agency" could be trying to swindle you, and without a physical copy of a ticket, that would be my assumption.

"Delegated" is an disingenuous word. IF in fact there was a ticket, the municipality "sold" the debt to an American collection agency for pennies on the dollar. The agency now wants to scare you into paying whatever they think they can get out of you.

Contact the three credit reporting agencies and request copies of your credit report. If there is no report from this company, ignore it. If such an entry does exists, dispute it with the credit reporting agencies. Submit a statement in which you state the facts: you never received a ticket.

Sorry, travelhorizons, you really should pay attention to dates and original posters.

Dougtransue hijacked Lenkaya original postings. Doug tickets is not five years - just the original posting is five years old and nothing to do with Lankaya's ticket.

Big reason why people should not hijack other postings.

For Doug, it probably is not a scam. You problem probably does not relate to the toll booth incident since you indicated that you handled it. Most likely you have been caught on a traffic camera for speeding or a lane violation or a violation of the infamous TL zones. And Florence is a hot bed of TLZ violations since you said you were there.

Generally it is a two step process. You get a charge from the rental company indicating that they have charged you an administrative fee for turning your name and address over to the police for a traffic violation. Sometime later you will get the official notification from the Italy police. You cannot do much until you get that notification. Second, if you have more than one traffic violation, the rental company will charge the administration fee for every violation. Without the violation in hand, you really cannot proceed since you have nothing to proceed with. Sometimes it can be nearly a year from the time of the original violation. When were you in Italy.

I have read elsewhere that the Italian governments have year to present the ticket. Don't know if that is valid. Also, have read postings where these tickets have been turned over to local collection agencies. Again, don't know how successful collection agencies have been.

Good luck.

Dougtransue, this is the guidance provided by the US Embassy in Italy:
https://it.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen...530.1457127678

Doug -as the other say it is better to start a new thread of one's own. But never mind . . . Re the ticket. It is almost 100% surely legit. You likely drove I to a restricted zone or were caught speedi g on camera. Simply put the text into google and it will translate it for you easy peasy.

In the case of a web site, just paste the URL into Google translate ( translate.google.com ) Translating bureaucratese is not Google's strong point, but you usually get the meaning.