Originally Posted by 13901

There's a bit to unpack in here, to be honest.

I'd honestly challenge the "renting a car in Italy is the most frustrating experience" bit. I've rented vehicles for 15 years in most corners of the country and never had a frustrating experience, except during Covid when the faster pick up service was closed and the desks were clogged up with clueless people asking questions such as "will there be hold-ups on the speedway" (heard at MXP, I kid you not). If you book from dodgy outfits you WILL get scammed and, yes, unfortunately the NAP/Southern Italy area is a hotspot of insurance fraud. Just go with the full coverage and Bob's your uncle.

I'm also not sure why so many people struggle with the automatic petrol stations. Select a card payment option - and most even offer contactless these days, it's amazing the leap that Covid caused! - select the pump you want to refill from, and off ya go.

The 80€ is just bonkers. The fare Napoli Nord-Roma Nord is 18.80€ for a car, and 45€ for a semi-articulated lorry. Dumb question... did you put the ticket in? Because if you don't it the system defaults to the top price for the entire length of that stretch of motorway. Still, in 20 years of using Autostrade I've never, ever, seen anything like it. I'd have stopped at the parking spot behind the toll booth and went back to enquire, stopping the lane is actually dangerous especially if it's a Telepass one.