Originally Posted by manneca

I understand not wanting to spend long hours in the car. I just want to say that the driving restricted zones are easy to avoid. I went to Italy last summer and rented a car. I drove from Rome to Ravenna to Venice to (eventually) Florence and back to Rome. I had hotels in restricted zones. At each hotel except Venice (where I parked in one of the parking garages), the hotel alerted the police with my license plate number and so I avoided tickets. The only near call I had was in Rome returning the rental car. The return wasn't clearly marked and the gps said it was a left turn, which was marked as restricted. So I turned right thinking I'd find a parking place and look on foot and saw the return just down the road (on the right).

So, don't be put off by scares about the restricted zones.