Restricted Driving Zones in Italy Explained

Traveler's Guide to ZTL Driving Zones in Italy

 

When you're getting ready to embark on a tour of Italy by car, it's important to familiarize yourself with the Limited Traffic Zones (called Zona Traffico Limitato or ZTL in Italian) found in most major cities. Many popular Italian travel destinations, such as Rome and Florence, have ZTL's in place to reduce congestion in high traffic areas, helping to slow the inevitable structural decay of their historic city centers.

Driving into a ZTL without the appropriate authorization will lead to a steep fine, and in nearly all cases tourists and non-residents are forbidden from being issued passes, as only local drivers are allowed to drive in these zones. The fines for crossing into a ZTL boundary are issued by ticket-cameras placed at the entrance of each zone, and these tickets will vary in price based on the city you're driving in. Typically you can expect to pay approximately 65 EUR if you drive into a ZTL zone in Italy, plus a "Traffic Violation Fee" of around 25 EUR charged by your local car rental supplier.

Helpful Tips for Avoiding ZTL Italy Tickets
Reading Italy ZTL Road SignsCamera-Ticketing: Streets with ZTL access are regulated by ticket-cameras that process fines instantaneously, the second your vehicle breaches a ZTL boundary. The ticket is processed electronically and sent to the address listed on the car's registration (if it's a rented vehicle, the ticket is sent to the billing address of the credit card listed on the rental voucher).

GPS Doesn't Always Help: Because ZTL regulations are determined individually by each city - and because they change periodically - GPS systems do not include ZTL boundary information, and usually suggest the shortest possible route to a specific destination. Drivers should be aware that this can lead them to accidentally cross into numerous ZTL's where they could accumulate many tickets.

Don't Be A Follower: While touring an Italian city in your rental car, you will most likely see some drivers crossing into a ZTL and might think that you can follow them without incurring a fine. This is incorrect. Most local drivers have passes allowing them ZTL access, so be careful when following others.

This information provided by our partner Auto Europe -  Click here for maps and zone information

The best Game of Thrones locations

The best Game of Thrones locations in Ireland

SPECTACULAR FILM LOCATIONS IN NORTHERN IRELAND

Captivating coastline

Portraying Theon Greyjoy, actor Alfie Allen endures great agony. Yet he can never get enough of the filming. “I love this spectacular coastline. If Northern Ireland had a slightly better climate, it would be like New Zealand.” Allen spent most of his time donning a harness and roaming Ballintoy Harbour, the stunning setting for the Iron Islands. In between takes, the actors often visited the Giant's Causeway, the famous nearby basalt columns.

The Iron Islands

Theon Greyjoy was born on the Iron Islands. Here, in the sea along the coast of Pyke (Ballintoy), he is baptised in the name of the Drowned God to prove his loyalty to Ironborn.

Cushendun

Ancient delivery room

The role of merciless priestess Melisandre in Game of Thrones has brought Dutch actress Carice van Houten great fame. And the most talked about scene is undoubtedly the one in season two, when her character gives birth to a baby of black smoke. This pivotal scene was filmed in the Caves of Cushendun, which were formed by more than 400 million years of the sea pounding on the crumbling coastline.

Dragonstone

After the infamous scene in the caves of Cushendun, the Red Woman leaves Dragonstone in search of Robert Baratheon’s lost illegitimate son. She finds him and brings him back to the castle along the rugged coast for a very special reunion.

Castle Ward

Archery in Winterfell

In a series where each episode sees dozens of characters dying a bloody death, it is nice to have a less vengeful family. That is the role of House Stark: the friendliest of the warring parties in Westeros. Home base Winterfell is mostly filmed on Castle Ward: an 18th century country estate where part of the set still stands and visitors can try their hand at archery.

Winterfell

A castle with character

The towers of Castle Ward are easily identifiable among the CGI walls and towers of Winterfell. But there is more to Winterfell than CGI: prior to filming the Winterfell scenes, over 100 crew members worked for eight weeks to transform the castle into the Stark family fort.

Dark Hedges

Eerie tree tunnel

Game of Thrones is often described as the feuds of The Sopranos set in the Middle-Earth of The Lord of the Rings. Such a magical setting wouldn’t be complete without a place like the Dark Hedges: a bizarre lane of trees just outside the village of Armoy and one of the most photographed views in Northern Ireland. In the series, the lane portrays the most dangerous road in Westeros. An excellent choice: it’s easy to imagine a three-eyed raven among the sinister twisted branches.

Doors with stories

Doors with stories

The Dark Hedges is one of the most iconic film locations of Game of Thrones. Unfortunately, some of the over 200-year-old trees from the set were destroyed by a storm in 2016, but have been turned into doors with the help of some artistic carpenters.
 Each wooden door represents one episode from season six of Game of Thrones and they can be admired in several pubs, bars and inns across Northern Ireland. At the end of each episode, the location of the next door is revealed. The Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle is one of the proud owners of such a door. See what’s behind it as you wander into Tollymore Forest, the place where men from the Night’s Watch stumble upon a White Walker in the first season’s pilot episode.

Quitin Bay

Star beach

Quintin Castle is an impressive example of medieval architecture on the east coast of Northern Ireland. However, the 12th-century castle was skilfully edited out of Game of Thrones to make room for the fictional Castle Stokeworth of mercenary Bronn. Producers felt that Quintin Bay – with its ominous rocks and barren beaches – was the real star of the local landscape. Of course that doesn’t include the character of Jaime Lannister who can be seen here trudging through the sand.

Empty promises

Bronn finally gets what he thinks he is entitled to. But when he is promised Castle Stokeworth, this comes at a price. His prospect of riches and a beautiful wife are short-lived when life turns out different than expected and he is persuaded to go on a new quest.

Uncover San Francisco's Beat Trail

Uncover San Francisco's Beat Trail 

By: Monograms

As anyone who strolls down Jack Kerouac Lane can guess, San Francisco is a city that relishes its literary memories. In the 1950s, a flood of free-spirited writers rejecting the leaden conformity of Cold War society traveled here to create the “San Francisco Renaissance.” These bohemians congregated in the low-rent Italian neighborhood of North Beach, frequenting the smoky jazz bars and cheap pasta joints in the area. 

The most famous resident was Kerouac, author of On The Road, who coined the term “beat generation” to describe his restless friends. (The name came from underground slang, and mixed a sense of being downtrodden and rebellious, Kerouac said, with “beatific” and saintly; San Francisco newspaper writer Herb Caen later transformed “beat” into the popular term “beatnik” a few years later). Kerouac arrived here with his friend Neal Cassidy, who appears as the character Dean Moriarty in On the Road, and the poet Allen Ginsberg, who debuted his epic poem Howl at a riotous reading in the neighborhood Six Gallery, a literary event that turned into a famous all-night party. 

Today, the City Lights Bookstore (cnr. Columbus Avenue and Jack Kerouac Alley) is one of the city’s most beloved shrines: It was founded in 1952 by the beat poet Lawrence Ferlenghetti, and remains one of America’s great bookstores. After browsing the collection, pull up a chair at the Vesuvio Bar next door; in the ‘50s, this was the beats’ favorite watering hole. It was here that Kerouac was way-laid on his way to meet the great author of Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller; while the elderly Miller waited, Kerouac became too drunk to leave. Kerouac’s boozing and willingness to push himself to the limits would finally be his destruction: He died of complications due to alcoholism in 1969, only 47 years old.

Let Monograms and The Little Travel Consultant help you build the perfect vacation to San Francisco!

Unfold the History of Hadrians Wall in England

Join Globus and Unfold the History of Hadrians Wall in England

By: Globus

The English countryside is thick with historical ruins, but some of the most formidable were created by the world’s first superpower, ancient Rome. Conquered by Emperor Claudius in 69 AD, Britain became one of the remotest provinces of the sprawling Roman Empire, and amongst its most troublesome. 

Decade after decade, Roman legions were dispatched to subdue the Pictish “barbarians” of the northern part of the islands (modern Scotland), but were defeated by its dismal weather, rugged terrain and savage resistance. Worse, defiant Pictish raiders swept down from the highlands to pillage peaceful Roman settlements, causing endless headaches for local governors. Finally, in 180 AD, the visionary Emperor Hadrian had had enough of the troublesome frontier. He decided to build a 180-mile-long defensive wall through the narrowest neck of the island, with military towers set up every mile; forts would be manned by 1,000 men each to keep the enemy at bay. 

These sodden, windswept outposts were amongst the least popular postings in the Empire for Roman soldiers, who longed for the warmer climates of the Mediterranean, but thanks to their impregnable stone barrier, they successfully kept the peace in Roman Britain for over 200 years. Only when the Roman Empire itself began to crumble around 400 AD, and the once-disciplined Roman soldiers themselves became vicious bands of marauders, was Hadrian’s Wall abandoned. Even so, the edifice remained more or less for another thousand years; until the Normans in the Middle Ages realized that the beautifully-cut Roman stone would make excellent material for their castles, so the masonry has been largely pillaged. 

Today, anyone driving from England to Scotland can turn off from the main highways and visit the eerily abandoned remains of Hadrian’s once-splendid Wall – now peaceful and picturesque, wandered by herds of sheep instead of wild-eyed barbarians.

Great storytellers don’t use scripts. They use itineraries. Bring the stories of England to life with Globus. Contact The Little Travel Consultant and get started.

Explore the Swiss Alps

Explore the Swiss Alps with Globus

By: Globus

Switzerland is small in area, about a third the size of New England, but it is grand in stature, the tallest country in Europe. Sixty percent of the land is mountainous.

The Swiss Alps sweep across the country from the eastern borders of Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein and Italy in the south, to the hills above Provence in southern France, in an imposing meringue of stiff peaks formed of rock, ice and snow, perched like a scoop of ice cream on the cone of northern Italy. Du Four Peak is the highest mountain in Switzerland (15,634 feet), just a bit shorter than Mont Blanc (15,774), which rests along the French, Italian and Swiss borders. The watershed flows west from the run off of St. Gotthard Massif Alpine Range in the west central area of Switzerland, becoming the source of both the mighty Rhine and Rhone Rivers.

The Alps may be high and imposing, but they are also porous. For thousands of years they’ve allowed travelers, traders, armies, and in Hannibal’s case, elephants, passage through central Europe. Today there is even a 14-day ski excursion that hundreds engage in every year, crossing the Alps from France all the way to St. Moritz and Zermatt near the eastern border of Austria.

The Alps are the defining image of Switzerland and are spectacularly awe-inspiring. They can be frightening close up, depending on weather, but heartbreakingly beautiful when admired at a distance from alpine meadows, villages, towns, cities and on the roads or rails through this magnificent country, the roof of Europe.

Destinations aren’t just places on a map. They’re the backdrop for some of the most fascinating stories in history. Experience the Swiss Alps with Globus and The Little Travel Consultant!

La Piazza Della Signora

La Piazza Della Signora

By: Globus

What’s the best vantage point to ponder the most illustrious town square in Florence, the Signoria? An outdoor table in the venerable Caffè Rivoire – preferably over a delicious, if not painfully expensive cioccolata con pane, a dark and mud-thick hot chocolate. Late at night, when the crowds have gone, you can search the long shadows and imagine that very little has changed here since the 1400s.

The Signoria is the most elegant sculpture garden in Europe. Masterpieces include the splendid Neptune Fountain by Ammannati, Hercules and Cacus by Bandinelli and a precise copy of Michelangelo’s David, all strategically poised in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. This grand public space has been the centerpiece of Florence since the 15th Century, the golden age when the city was established as the most beautiful in Europe. Eminent merchants in their ostentatious finery met here to discuss business in the midst of Florence’s raucous daily life: the din and odors from the produce vendors, butchers and fishmongers were as intense as any Indian bazaar. Barbers also plied their trade in the open air; preachers harangued the crowd for their wanton ways; children played palla al calico, a type of soccer; while young gentleman enjoyed chess and dice on the stone steps.

With so many Florentines crowded together, the Signoria was also where sudden eruptions of violence might occur – some with political aims, other seemingly by accident. The city records show that a runaway horse once charged into the piazza, knocking over stalls and creating general panic. City officials thought that a revolt was in progress, so they locked the palace doors and the public executioner went into hiding, fearing retaliation from the friends and families of his victims.