Driving in Italy
Verdict
No vignette and nothing to buy at the border. What catches visitors is the camera at the edge of an old town, the toll barrier, and fines that can follow a foreign plate home for a year.
Keep your dipped headlights on outside towns, day and night. The limits are 130 km/h on the autostrada and 110 in rain, the drink-drive limit is 0.5 g/l (zero for drivers under 21 and in their first three years), and a phone in the hand now costs €250 to €1,000 with a driving ban on top. A camera-enforced ZTL in the historic centre is the fine most visitors bring home.
Italy rewrote large parts of its road code in December 2024, so a lot of what is repeated online is out of date. Every rule on this page was checked on 1 October 2026 in the current text of the Codice della Strada, as published by ACI, Italy's public motoring authority, and on official pages from the State Police, Autostrade per l'Italia and the UK government; the sources are at the bottom. Italian fines are normally raised with inflation every two years, but that update has been suspended up to and including 2026, so the amounts below are the ones in force this year.
Tick what you already have. Set your departure date, and anything that takes time, such as a sticker by post or an online order, shows the date to act by.
Ticks, dates and your own items are saved in this browser only, and shared with the checklist on the home page; nothing is sent to us. On Android, use the Google Calendar link on each item.
Driving through more than one country? Build the checklist for your whole route.
| Road | Dry | Rain or snow | Car towing a trailer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Motorway (autostrada) | 130 km/h | 110 km/h | 80 km/h |
| Main extra-urban road (dual carriageway) | 110 km/h | 90 km/h | 70 km/h |
| Other roads outside towns | 90 km/h | 90 km/h | 70 km/h |
| Built-up area | 50 km/h | 50 km/h | 50 km/h |
The lower limits apply in rain, snow or any other precipitation, not only when the road is flooded. On three-lane motorways with average-speed cameras the operator may raise the limit to 150 km/h, but only where a sign says so. In towns, a sign can raise the limit to 70 km/h on suitable roads. Drivers in their first three years on an Italian licence are limited to 100 km/h on the motorway and 90 on main roads.
Speed is measured by fixed cameras and by average-speed systems over a stretch of road, and the code requires every check to be signposted and visible. If one car is caught several times within an hour on roads run by the same authority, it gets the most serious fine increased by a third instead of every fine separately.
Outside built-up areas, every motor vehicle must drive with dipped headlights, by day as well as by night, on the autostrada as on a country road. It is the rule visitors from countries without it forget most often. The fine is €42 to €173.
Where no sign or traffic light says otherwise, a vehicle coming from the right has priority at a junction. Ignoring it costs €167 to €665. On the motorway, the hard shoulder is for stopping only: driving along it costs €430 to €1,731.
The 2024 reform made this one of the most expensive tickets in Europe. Using a phone, tablet or similar device in a way that takes a hand off the wheel, even briefly, costs €250 to €1,000, and the code adds a driving ban of 15 days to two months. A second offence within two years costs €350 to €1,400 and a ban of one to three months.
The limit is 0.5 g/l of blood alcohol. It is zero for drivers under 21, for drivers in their first three years with a car licence, and for professional drivers; between zero and 0.5 g/l they pay €168 to €672.
Between 0.5 and 0.8 g/l it is an administrative offence: €543 to €2,170 and a licence suspension of three to six months. From 0.8 g/l it is a crime, with a fine and up to six months' arrest; above 1.5 g/l the car is confiscated unless it belongs to someone else. Committed between 22:00 and 07:00, the crime carries a fine a third to a half higher. Since the reform, a driver convicted of the criminal offence gets an alcolock condition on the licence for years afterwards.
Drugs are now judged without any test of impairment: driving after taking them is enough, and the penalty is €1,500 to €6,000, six to twelve months' arrest and a one-to-two-year licence suspension.
Most fines are cut by 30% if paid within five days, but not those that come with a driving ban. A driver of a foreign-registered car can pay the reduced amount to the officer on the spot; otherwise the police take a deposit, which for an EU or EEA car equals that reduced amount, and without it the car can be held for up to 60 days. Camera fines reach drivers who live abroad up to 360 days after the offence, and on a hire car the rental company adds its own fee.
An EU or EEA licence counts as an Italian one. A UK photocard licence needs no International Driving Permit for a visit, according to GOV.UK; a paper licence does, and a hire desk may ask for one anyway. A UK car needs a UK sticker unless the plate shows UK with the Union flag.
Other non-EU licences, including a US licence, are valid in Italy only together with an International Driving Permit or an official Italian translation. Driving without one costs €408 to €1,634.
If the car stops on the carriageway outside a town and cannot be seen in time, at night with no working rear lights or by day, it must be signalled with the warning triangle. In the same situation you may not get out and walk on the road without a high-visibility vest or reflective braces, and that applies on the hard shoulder and in lay-bys too. The code is written as a duty to wear the vest rather than to carry it, which in practice means one within reach in the car. Either fine is €42 to €173.
Children shorter than 1.50 m must travel in a child restraint suited to them. Italy also requires an anti-abandonment alarm with the seat of a child under four, a device that warns if the child is left in the car. The rule covers cars registered in Italy, and cars registered abroad when driven by a resident of Italy, so it does not apply to a visitor in their own car. A hire car is registered in Italy, so ask the rental company for one with the seat. The fine for a missing seat or alarm is €83 to €332.
Making, selling or using any device that signals or locates police speed cameras is banned: €825 to €3,305, and the device is confiscated.
Most Italian motorways charge by distance at a barrier: take a ticket on the way in and pay on the way out. In the exit lanes signed for cards, Autostrade per l'Italia takes Visa, Mastercard and American Express credit cards and Maestro and V Pay debit cards without a PIN and without a fee, and the automatic lanes read contactless cards. Keep out of the lanes signed "reserved for Telepass customers", which open only for the electronic badge.
If you cannot pay at the barrier, you are given an unpaid toll ticket. It can be paid online within 15 days without anything added; after that a reminder goes to the registered owner with charges on top. The Pedemontana motorways north of Milan have no barriers at all and must be paid online within 15 days. The toll page has the details.
On the roads where a sign says so, a car must have winter tyres fitted or chains on board from 15 November to 15 April, whether or not it is snowing. The State Police say tyres marked M+S count as winter tyres in Italy, unlike in Germany, where only the Alpine snowflake does. Road authorities in the mountains and the north can bring the dates forward, and in much of the south the obligation is not applied at all. Winter rules across the Alps.
Most historic centres are a zona a traffico limitato, a limited-traffic zone with a camera at every entrance. There is nothing to buy; your number plate has to be registered before you pass the camera, usually by a hotel inside the zone. How it works city by city, and what the fines are.
Stop on the hard shoulder or in a lay-by, put the vest on before you get out, set the triangle, and get everyone behind the barrier. 112 is the emergency number. On its own network, Autostrade per l'Italia sets maximum prices for breakdown and towing services, so ask for the price before the work starts.
Italy is the most expensive country in our ranking for ultra-fast charging, with a typical no-subscription price of about €0.80 a kWh. Electra's app price there starts at €0.69, and a month of Ionity Power brings Ionity down to €0.48. What charging costs across Europe, and on your route.
Where to leave the car, from our sister site. Each card is the short version; the full guide has every car park, the tow pound and the charging points.
ParkingInEurope
All roads lead to Rome. Most of the last kilometres are on camera.
Full parking guide for Rome Checked 16 September 2026
ParkingInEurope
A camera on every road into the old ring and €7.50 a weekday to pass it. The metro-end car parks charge €1.50 for five hours and let the train do the rest.
Full parking guide for Milan Checked 29 September 2026
ParkingInEurope
Renaissance on foot, car on the motorway. Seriously, that's the trick.
Full parking guide for Florence Checked 16 September 2026
ParkingInEurope
The road stops at the end of a bridge. Everything after that floats.
Full parking guide for Venice Checked 16 September 2026
ParkingInEurope
Old Naples is a camera-watched ZTL from 09:00; the station garage keeps you 24 hours for €25. Blue lines run until midnight, and the man waving you into a space is not the council.
Full parking guide for Naples Checked 30 September 2026
We don't sell permits, vignettes or toll badges and don't link to resellers.