Italian Autostrada Highway: Tips + Dos and Don'ts

What is the Autostrada?

The Autostrada is the Italian highway/freeway connecting cities, and northern and southern Italy. “Auto” means car, and “Strada” is the road in Italian.

The Italians were the first to create and inaugurate the first highway system in the world. The Autostrada A8 ran between Milan and Varese and was inaugurated by king Victor Emmanuel III on the 21st September 1924.

Germany soon followed with the no-speed limit Autobahn, but Italy was the one who invested in the idea of a fast one lake highway system and then to at a time when cars were a luxury.

Is there a Speed Limit?

The Italian universal highway speed limit is 130 kph (80 mph), except if otherwise displayed. Look out for a signboard indicating reduced speed limits.

Digital signboard can change and reduce speed limits in real time due to accidents and bad weather conditions.

They also use these digital signboards to inform about other road incidents.

Tolls

Most highway roads, and tunnel sections, are chargeable toll roads in Italy.

That means, when you enter the highway, you will eventually get to a self-service toll booth section.

The machine will spit out a ticket, which you need to keep aside. You'll be driving down a stretch, or you will exit the highway, where you will eventually encounter a toll booth to pay.

Tool booth machines are either cash or cards, or you have the option to get a Telepass, an electronic toll tag.

Do's

• Drive in the right lane. The left lane is only used to take over.
• You should use your indicator way in advance to switch between lanes. Germans use them properly; Italians still haven't learned it yet.
• Keep a good distance between other vehicles and trucks.
• Trucks don't drive on Sunday, so plan a road trip on Sunday because that means more space and less traffic.
• Follow road signs and radio traffic news to find out about accidents and wrong-way drivers.
• In Italy, you can drive regular combustion engine cars, electric vehicles, RVs, and even larger motorbikes on the highway.
• Take as many stops as possible
• You don't need to create an emergency passage lane for emergency vehicles as they do in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Emergency vehicles use the shoulder in Italy.

Don'ts

• Don't drive too fast when there is a speed limit. A speed camera will record your speed, and you will receive a fine after a few months. If you have a rental car, they will send it to your home address. Fines start at about $40.
• Don't speed in tunnels. They use a camera technology that takes pictures of your front and back license plates, and if you were speeding and coming out before the time that you should from the tunnel, you will get flashed. The consequence is a fine.
• Don't stop on the hard shoulder just to relieve yourself. But you can stop there if you have an emergency with your car or if you feel like throwing up.
• Don't ignore police cars when they attempt to stop you.
• Don't drive on Italian highways if you are not used to curvy, narrow highway roads and crazy drivers.

Signboards

The Italian highway system uses green signboards. Blue is for suburban and white for urban roads in Italy.

While the United States has a nifty interstate highway signboard system, showing the cardinal points, east, south, west and north, the European signboard system lacks it altogether.

You have to know the cities along the way to your prime destination. The directional signboards will read various cities, with the farthest one being at the top.

The signboards do include the road number as well, which can be helpful.

The yellow sign indicates a detour. The bright, large neon yellow signboard with a hand and a stop on it indicates that you are about to drive onto the wrong side of the highway.

Italian Highway Vocabulary

Learn more German to English phrases to prepare for your trip.

Neighboring Country Tolls and Speed Limit

Highway tolls are completely unique between countries in Europe, and it might be confusing if you are new to driving in Europe. Fortunately, here, everyone drives on the right side, even the Brits!

Austria – You will need a highway sticker to drive on the motorway, called a Vignette or Pickerl. You can buy it at petrol pumps in Germany and Austria, or also online as a digital vignette. They offer 1 day, 10 days, 60 days or 360 days toll stickers. The speed limit is usually 80 mph (130 km/h), except for stretches in Tyrol where the speed limit is 100 km/h.

Switzerland operates like Austria with a vignette motorway sticker system, but you can only get a yearly sticker. The speed limit here is 75 mph (120 km/h).

France — Just like Italy, France still keeps classic toll booths along the highway. When you enter a freeway, you take a ticket (which you don't lose!), and when you leave the highway or change into another new section, you pay for that stretch. The speed limit is set at 75 mph (120 km/h).

Slovenia — You can purchase an e-vignette for a week, a month, or a year for Slovenia.

FAQs