ZTL -Fined twice in one day in the same car

roddyp

New member
Lost in Florence, driving a hire car, I accidentally entered the ZTL twice: once at 1.07pm and again at 1.14pm.
Bizarrely, I duly received two fines!
I paid the first fine as, clearly, I had made a mistake. I emailed the authorities disputing the second fine but never received a reply.
Four years later (last week), I unexpectedly received a letter from a credit collection agency.
In short, is this a mistake by the city authorities? If I want to drive in central London, for example, I pay one charge that covers me for the entire day. It doesn't seem fair or reasonable to charge a tourist twice in 7 minutes!
I would appreciate any advice you could give.
Thanks,
Peter
 
I am so sorry to hear of your experience!

Unfortunately, the ZTL here can be accessed only for special reasons during the hours it is operational and, if you need to, you have to go in person and request a special entrance pass and pay for it ahead of time (if fee is due). This is the only way you can have a pass to enter the ZTL --- and it is only valid for that certain day and for a certain time frame. It is not an open pass to be used all day either.

The cameras are there to take photos of license plates passing under and into the ZTL all day long. It gives you a FINE for having entered, it does not grant you access at all. So if you did get lost and go round and round and passed under the entrance gate(s) twice, you do get fined twice. Don't believe they do this only to tourists -- they do it to local residents as well. It happens to those that don't live in the ZTL and don't know the streets well and get also get lost in the one-way streets and end up going round and round, I imagine you must have done something similar.
Personally, it is the reason why I am afraid of driving into the ZTL - and will only do so under extenuating circumstances AFTER 7pm when the cameras are turned off. I am pretty freaked out about getting fined, and this is the reason why I've written the articles on avoiding the ZTL area whenever possible and recommend on this forum to not have a car at all in Florence if possible. If you rented a car and were trying to leave the car rental agency, I recommend always getting the precise route to follow out of the ZTL from the person at the rental counter so that there are no wrong turns and end up back inside the ZTL, because you would be fined if you passed under the gate and camera.

I believe at this point the only option is to pay up, I am not sure if the credit collection agency that contacted you is a local UK company or an Italian one, what reach they have in affecting your credit or having access to getting funds from you.
You can be a better judge of that from the info you have in your hands.
Do share with us what you end up doing, all this info I collect on experiences helps me warn people further about the dangers of driving in Florence.
 
Top