Driving on Italian Roads

• Posted by: Editor
• On: 16/05/2008 09:27:47
• In: Italy Car Hire

Driving Italian Roads:
The speed limit is variable dependant on the road class you are driving on. On the Autostrade (Motorway), the speed limit is 130 km/h and 110 km/h when wet. You will be obliged to have your lights on at all times (You may spot signs with "In Autostrada Anabbaglianti Sempre Accesi", meaning "On the Autostrada keep your running lights on"). Also keep an eye out for smaller cars whose smaller engines will not allow them to travel at the speed limit. These roads are marked as black on the road maps.

The Autostrade is usually a tolled road as well, so if you are not looking for the fastest way between two points than you should probably avoid these roads; there isn’t usually much to see on them anyway. If you are using them you will find toll gates at the entrances and exits; at the entrance you get a ticket and when you exit you give back the ticket which charges you the appropriate amount. If you lose your ticket you are charged the maximum distance possible on that road.

There are the Major roads and are frequently Dual Carriageways, the speed limit is 110 km/h and 90 km/h when wet. These roads are of good quality and traffic is unidirectional, they are marked red on the road maps. Because mountains run down the length of peninsular Italy, most of the major roads in Italy run north-south parallel to the coast and the mountains. If you want to cross to the opposite coast you may find you are using minor roads.

The next level is the normal minor road. These roads have one lane going in each direction. These roads can tend to be narrow and winding, but you will come across them often on the tourist trail. The speed limit is 90 km/h, 80 km/h when wet, and are marked yellow on the road map.

When driving in urban areas, cities and villages, the speed limit is 50 km/h at all times. When you are driving in a town and you encounter pedestrians, the usual rule of thumb is that the pedestrian will walk in a straight line and the car will go around them. All that is left are the small roads marked in white on the map, these can sometimes be no more than glorified dirt tracks so avoid these if possible.

The given speed limits are strictly implemented and there are radar controls on the roads, so even if you aren’t stopped and charged by a police officer, there may be a photo of your car with a fine being sent to your car rental company who will pay the bill using your credit card details.

A fairly important point to remember when you are stopping for fuel in Italy is which fuel does your rental use and what are the names of the different fuels. The fuel type should be written on the fuel cap but to be sure you should probably ask the rental agents before you leave. The name for Diesel is Gasolio and for Unleaded petrol it is Benzina.

As you can see there are a few peculiarities about driving on Italian roads but they are small ones and you should have little to fear about driving on these roads. If you wish to learn more about your car rental Italy options check out the Italy section of our site. If you would prefer to learn more about Italy we have a number of other blogs that might interest you in our car rental Italy blogs section.

If you still have some unanswered questions please ask us and we will do our best to answer them?