Driving in Italy

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Driving in Italy


To fully explore all that Rimini and its surrounding province can offer, with full independence, you'll probably want to either bring your own car, or hire one there. That may sound daunting, but we've gathered together some of the info you'll need to make the most of the motoring experience.

Rimini's new traffic regulations

As part of the Comune's increasing efforts to improve air quality, as is the case in many of Italy's cities, new traffic restrictions are in place in Rimini's town centre. In the city centre there is a traffic restricted zone which it's important that you know about. Video-cameras are in operation, and non-authorized vehicles are subject to fines.

For full info on Rimini's new traffic regulations click here»»

Driving on the Auto-Strade in Italy

Rimini is directly connected to the Auto-Strade (motorway/highway) network. The famous A14, which runs from Bologna to the Adriatic coast, and all the way down to Taranto in Puglia, covering a distance of 743,4km, has two exits to Rimini - Rimini Nord & Sud.

The autostrade operate on a toll basis. You take a ticket when entering the system, and pay upon exit. For guidance, here are some price guidelines for both cars and motorbikes.

Tips for the Autostrade

Paying on the Auto-strada

There are a number of options for paying your toll on the autostrada.
  • Pre-Paid Viacard
    You can buy pre-paid passes called viacard, for 25, 50, or 75. These are available at service stations, autogrill, and in many tabaccherie throughout Italy. They are ideal for someone who is going to use the network a reasonable amount, and doesn't wish to use credit card or loose change at the toll-booth. It allows you to pass through the blue channel, which often has less of a queue for exiting.

  • Credit Card
    Visa, Mastercard, Diners, and American Express credit cards are accepted methods of payment, without any additional toll processing costs.

  • Cash
    Cash is obviously an accepted method of payment. There are cashier manned toll-booths, which will give change, at each exit, although at peak times the queues for these may be lengthy.

    • Make sure you take a ticket entering the network - avoiding the telepass entrance. This is reserved for autostrade users who have signed up for a telepass, which involves fitting a signaller to the registered car. When exiting, choose the channel appropriate to payment.
    Blue → self-service for credit card or viacard
    White with cash symbol → Exact cash, no change given
    White with hand & cash symbol → cashier - change given
    Do not use the Telepass channel. Driving through this, without the telepass signaller, will make you liable to a hefty fee.

    Service Stations

    It is still fairly common to find service stations that are precisely that - service stations - so don't be surprised if, when you pull into the forecourt, there is someone waiting to take your keys and fill up the engine.

    At the same-time it's becoming more and more frequent, particularly outside of normal working hours, to find self-service pumps where you pay beforehand into a machine. Most of these have english language instructions included on the machine, though using them is not necessarily the easiest thing in the world.

    As many of the 'self-service' stations run with an automat, it's clever to ensure you have change and a selection of different small denomination bank-notes, in order to deal with the petulant nature of the machines!

    Some handy translations for the forecourt: