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Dating from end Jan this year. Got the admin fee note via the hire car company (a local one rather than a global). Really have no idea what I did wrong but will have to suck it up.
The admin fee bit was paid easily enough as the hire car people took it from my cc. However, they have not responded to messages asking what the fine relates to or indeed how I go about paying it - I don't even know the value of it!
I will contact the local 'administration' to see if they can guide me but any experience of this from anyone here? Assume next time I enter Italy I'll get collared and ushered aside for a full cavity search!
No real help but my one and only parking ticket, in 30+ years of driving, was near Lake Como in 2000s. I wandered back into the hotel we were staying in with the ticket in my hand and before I knew it the Landlady rushed up to me, grabbed the ticket out of my hand and shredded it in front of my face and told me "This is Italy, we don't pay fines".
Never heard anything more about it and have been back many times.
We had two from the hire car company a few years back. No recollection of any rule breaking. Never heard anything from anyone official, just the admin fee from the hire company. They couldn't provide any documents and took the money automatically from the credit card on file. We lodge a query with the bank and after the hire car failed to respond the bank refunded the money. Seems to happen a lot in Italy from a bit of googling
I was sent a fine through the post from Lucca in Tuscany, 2 years after the alleged infringement. Ignored.
Another 2 years later I received a demand from a debt collection agency in the uk who had bought it up to try and strong arm people into paying. Ignored that too.
We paid one at the post office before we left Italy a few years ago. Then spent the next three years continually showing them the proof we had paid. It was a huge administration pain.
I have a ticket number (from the hire company rather than a physical thing left on the car) but no indication of what the offence might have been. I drive like a pensioner in a Yaris when I'm abroad but maybe I missed a local camera or something. Or I'm being scammed as seems to be the suggestions above!
“This is Italy, we don’t pay fines”.
My wife (then girlfriend) did her PhD in Italy years back, so spent quite a bit of time out there. Found the above sentiment to be true. We got a couple of these weird traffic fines via car hire companies during our time there. Never any details given about where and what the offence was, ticket would arrive via the post months or even years after the supposed offence. Italian friends always told us to ignore them.
I feel stupid for paying the admin fee I got from the car hire company last year now.
This was 2 years after a trip to Sardinia. They didn’t have any cc details on file so I had to pay by bacs. Again no mention of the actual traffic infringement.
Ha! Sardinia! When i was 21 and a student in a brand new Punto hire car a motorbike crashed into the side of the car just as I was doing a u-turn outside a police station. I got fined and had the insurance excess to pay.
It was an expensive way to discover that it's illegal to do a u-turn in Italy!
that it’s illegal to do a u-turn in Italy!
Not if done swiftly and using the handbrake...
Rules recently changed making it easier for these fines to be pursued here, so older stories may not be relevant
Not if done swiftly and using the handbrake…
Hahahaha
Rules recently changed making it easier for these fines to be pursued here, so older stories may not be relevant
They integrated all the DVLA systems pre Brexit, but AIUI had to disconnect them all as a result of Brexit.....
I paid a speeding fine incurred in germany, but the police there sent me a nice letter with a mugshot and full details of how to pay. Was only 10 euros so seemed worth it to avoid any future issues.
I think traffic regulations and fines are the way that most Italians demonstrate their innate need to "stick it to the man" because they are Italians and not English they do not drive in a way (like we do) that suggests they believe that anyone else using a car is a idiot, they are firmly of the understanding that if they pull out of side road with a flamboyant joie de vivre attitude, you too will execute an evasive manoeuvre in an equally free spirited and ideally stylish way. Paying a fine would be to admit that you think you did something wrong!
they are firmly of the understanding that if they pull out of side road with a flamboyant joie de vivre attitude
Would it be more "gioia di vivere" or a variation of such 😁
Are there not instances where merging traffic from a side road does have right of way? I read this in a travel guide then spent the whole time wondering where it applied.
In general I found the standard of driving on par with the UK.
I think that was an old French rule - cars entering from a side road onto the main road has right of way. I think they got rid of it when they realised (belatedly) that it was in fact; insane. You can still get caught out though by the odd old dear who just guns it out of a junction in some remote backwater village.
Thats still in force, also some roundabouts have priorite a droite and some dont!
Thats still in force, also some roundabouts have priorite a droite and some dont!
Normally clearly signed though, so not a problem to cope with.
Had one of those notices from car hire company saying they'd taken €40 if my CC to give my details to the Venice police. No details of alleged offence 🤷♂️. Got a fixed penalty notice a few weeks later, seemed I'd been speeding coming back over the causeway. Thought about not paying but did in the end. Didn't want any worry when going back to Italy. The fine was €60 and payed through the police website. It was all in Italian but not difficult with a bit of help from Google translator.
Weird that as well as sending the admin fee they didn’t also send what had been sent to them. Are you getting fleeced? I got a speeding fine from Polizei via Sixt so essentially Sixt just forwarded it on with admin fee. The speeding fine was very clear it was me. I was smiling at the time 😁. Paid via OFX.