johngerard

Off to Sicily,on to Naples and finally to Rome shortly. Read today in papers that town mayors are raking in fines through crazy laws. Reuters bears this out -http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSPAT84669420080818
In Venice sandcastles are forbidden, Turin kissing in a car.
Are there any local laws as a tourist we should be watching out for? We are hiring a car in Sicily to drop the car off at naples airport - anything in particular the traffic cops are after besides speedlimits.
Buying fake handbags is being clamped on everywhere.

Palenque

Be aware of wide swatches of places like Florence that are off limits to private vehicles - many Fodorites report getting tickets in the mail months after returning for entering the no-go zones - clearly marked by signs and enforced by cameras - cars are really useless in places like Rome, Florence and obviously Venice.

fmpden

The dreaded TLZ zones enforced with cameras. By the time the ticket gets to you a year or so later the fine is hundreds of dollars. It is possible that your hotel could be inside one of these zones and it is the hotels responsibility to notify local police so that the ticket is not issued. Make sure they do it. Where would you find enough sand in Venice to make a sand castle?

johngerard

Found the paper article I was reading - http://www.metro.co.uk/news/833970-t...s-ban-in-italy
Hopefully we will not fall foul of any ridiculous laws like these.

yestravel

We had a hotel in a TLZ and the owner sent an email to the Police wiht our tzg number and perhpas car type. We had gone into the zone to get to t he hotel and during our stay there. He also gave us some sort of receipt should there be a problem. It's been over a year, so I think we are safe. But do watch out for them -- the signs are often not that noticiable and its easy to go thru a zone without knowing it. Most travel books idenitfy which cities/towns have them.

zeppole

Hello, folks? The OP is not going anywhere near Florence.

Sandcastle making is forbidden on the beaches of Eraclea, not Venice. Sex in cars is forbidden in Eboil, not Turin.

A lot of people go to Italy and elsewhere precisely so that they can shake their heads and laugh at them "furriners".

Maps of ZTLs in Italian cities like Florence are readily available on line. The fines are steep to discourage violations. They work. These historic cities are better for them.

When I formerly lived in America, parks were closed at night, feeding deer was forbidden, lawn mowers and leaf blowers were banned on Sundays and parading about in a bikini off the beach invited something close to a stoning in the suburbs. Italy's similar laws are "daft" -- ?

Ian

As far as I saw last summer during our driving adventure in Sicily, there are few traffic laws that you MUST obey. Speeding, passing insanely, creating lanes in traffic - it's all good. Just watch overnight parking. That they DID obey.

Ian

zeppole

PS: I just read all the way through the second article johngerard posted. I have seen similar laws in both Britain and the American suburbs and in environmentally protected areas, with the exception of banning Sesni sandals, the aural equivalent of blinding headlights.

alanRow

<<< what daft laws are there in Italy this summer >>>

Take that attitude to laws anywhere in the world and you are likely to find yourself in some cesspit of a jail with some big guy calling you "honey".