Hire cars · Italy
Verdict
The fine that follows Italian hire cars home is the ZTL camera, €83 to €332 each time you pass it, plus the rental company's fee. Stay out of the old towns unless your hotel registers the plate.
Europcar holds €300 on an Italian hire car, €100 with its excess cover, and charges €45 for each traffic offence it handles. Italy has up to 360 days to serve a fine on someone living abroad. A licence from outside the EU needs an international driving permit or an official Italian translation.
Italy's roads are not the problem in a hire car. The camera at the edge of an old town is, and so is the notice that arrives months after the car went back.
A ZTL (zona a traffico limitato) closes an old town to cars at set hours, enforced by camera. In Florence, Rome and Venice the fine runs €83 to €332, for every time you pass the camera. Nothing can be bought in advance: your plate has to be on the list before the camera sees it, and a hotel inside the zone usually registers it.
On a hire car the photo goes to the rental company. Italy's road code gives the authority 360 days to serve a notice on a driver living abroad, so a July photo can reach you the following spring. Keep the rental agreement and the final invoice for a year: hire car fines.
Europcar Italy charges €45 for handling a traffic offence and €56 for an unpaid toll, on top of the fine. Its deposit in Italy is €300, or €100 with the cover that cuts the excess to zero; vans €800, prestige cars €1,000 or €1,500. Put it on a credit card: hire car deposits.
Italian motorways charge by distance at barriers; card lanes take credit and debit cards without a PIN. If you cannot pay at the barrier, pay the unpaid-toll ticket online within 15 days. The Pedemontana north of Milan has no barriers: pay online within 15 days.
The yellow lane is for Telepass, an electronic toll badge, and photographs anyone using it without one. Sixt has sold its own toll transponder since April 2025, but most hire cars have none. Use the yellow lane only if you can see the box on the windscreen: Italy's tolls.
Outside towns, the high-visibility vest must be worn before you step onto the road or the hard shoulder, and dipped headlights are required day and night, motorways included. Each costs €42 to €173. A radar detector is banned: €825 to €3,305, and it is confiscated.
| Offence | Fine |
|---|---|
| 15 km/h over the limit | €173, up to €694 |
| 30 km/h over in town | €173, up to €694 |
| Phone in the hand | €250, up to €1,000, and a ban of 15 days to two months |
| Alcohol from 0.5 g/l | €543, up to €2,170, and three to six months' suspension |
| Child without a suitable seat | €83, up to €332 |
| ZTL camera | €83, up to €332, each pass |
Paying within five days takes 30% off the minimum, except where the licence is suspended. Speed limits are 50 km/h in towns, 90 outside, 110 on main roads and 130 on motorways; in rain or snow, 110 on motorways and 90 on main roads. Everything else is on driving in Italy.
From 15 November to 15 April, on roads where a sign says so, a car needs winter tyres fitted or chains on board, snow or not. Italy accepts M+S tyres. Ask for the kit when you book: winter kit on a hire car.
Children under 1.50 m need a suitable child seat. On an Italian hire car, ask for the anti-abandonment alarm with the seat for a child under four.
Italy recognises a licence from outside the EU unless you have lived in Italy for more than a year, provided you carry with it an international driving permit or an official Italian translation. The law adds that the permit must conform to the conventions Italy has joined. Driving without either costs €408 to €1,634.
For a Taiwanese licence, Taiwan's Highway Bureau says Taiwan's international driving permit is accepted in Italy for one year. Taiwan is not a party to those conventions, so I'd carry an official Italian translation as well. A Hong Kong international driving permit is issued under the 1949 Geneva convention.
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
Renaissance on foot, car on the motorway. Seriously, that's the trick.
Full parking guide for Florence 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
We don't sell car hire and don't link to rental brokers.