OK, I've been a bunch of threads here about ZTL, particularly in Florence.
I'm due to pick up my car from Borgo Ognissanti 53/55R and I want to head out towards Siena.
I was going to try to rent the car, then go back to my hotel on Via della Scala 43 to pick up my luggage but that would involve ZTL and although my hotel has offered to notify the traffic authorities, I'll just try to take my luggage over to the car rental office.
Based on this interactive map, I've found the allowed routes in yellow (Itinerari transito consentito) for ZTL Zona D:
Based on that, I've plotted a route in Google Maps, starting out from Borgo Ognissanti 42, which is actually a Catholic Church. Google Maps for some reason won't let me select Borgo Ognissanti 53/55R but I figure it should be close by to the church?
Here is the route, which seems to stay in the yellow paths and takes me across the Ponte Vespucci and heads west and then South and out of Florence. Once you head west after crossing the Arno, there shouldn't be any ZTL?
(Edit, looks like this link won't work, forcing you to re-enter the origin and destination so I'm trying to attach a screen shot in the enclosure)
Has anyone used a similar route out of Florence and specifically the car rental offices at Borgo Ognissanti?
What about return trip back to Borgo Ognissanti? Looks like with the one-way streets, you can't retrace this route, assuming it successfully avoids the ZTL.
Posts: 54 | Location: West Coast | Registered: 17 April 2008
The exit route is good, except the trivial detail that now via Curtatone is a one-way street going from Borgo Ognissanti to the river (you will be forced to stay on the left carriage).
As for returning the car, the map I drew in this thread is still valid. There are a couple of rental offices in the ZTL zone, I understand yours could be there.
I think that all of the chatter about picking up a rental car and avoiding the ZTL has created a sense that it is worse than it is. Leaving the Borgo Ognissanti car rental area is quite easy! Frankly, if we were able to do it a trained chimp could as well.
We found the car rental company was quite good at providing directions out of the city.
Jerry
The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see. ~G.K. Chesterton
If you are coming through Ponte S. Trinita you are fouling a ZTL camera in via Romana, just after the old gate. Remember to tell the agency or the hotel to notify your plate number.
think that all of the chatter about picking up a rental car and avoiding the ZTL has created a sense that it is worse than it is.
I agree. Get a really good map of Florence. Google is great but not always completely accurate. People from New Zealand stayed with us last summer in Idaho and google drove them thru the cemetary on a non existant road.
It is quite easy to get out of Florence from that rental site but get your luggage to the rental company so it is less confussing.
The route google has looks good. However, we always take the Ponte Della Vittoria because it gets you outside the wall. We used to go your google route but with the narrow one way streets and construction it became a problem.
My advice a good map and a good navigator can work wonders.
Originally posted by itarchivarius: If you are coming through Ponte S. Trinita you are fouling a ZTL camera in via Romana, just after the old gate. Remember to tell the agency or the hotel to notify your plate number.
Fouling?
Or do you mean following?
Can the agency notify for more than one entry into ZTL zone at a time? I worry that the route I would take would cross the ZTL cameras more than once.
Is there a minimum for taxis? I'm thinking just of taking a taxi from Borgo Ognissanti, after I return the car, to go to the B&B at Via Roma 6, which is near the Piazza della Repubblica.
Posts: 54 | Location: West Coast | Registered: 17 April 2008
I meant "triggering". The route Via Romana - Ponte S. Trinita to Borgo Ognissanti triggers a single ZTL camera in via Romana, unless you get it wrong and you do a loop on the lungarno near the ponte Vespucci.
Any of the Florence maps still show the ZTL as being a few blocks away from the main car rental spots on Borgo Ognissanti
Borgo Ognisanti is in Section D of the current ZTL. It must have been expanded since you were there. It is just under the "D" in the red section of this ZTL map. There is a "free" way out, by following the street marked in yellow, but any deviation from that route is risking a ticket.
I believe that the yellow streets (most of Borgo Ognisanti is marked in yellow) are noted as ones where you can drive. As I said - leaving was quite easy. Getting back in, not so much.
Jerry
The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see. ~G.K. Chesterton
JDeQ wrote: I believe that the yellow streets (most of Borgo Ognisanti is marked in yellow)
Unless I am really color blind or my monitor is very off, I am pretty sure that YELLOW zone is the Centro Storico and thus in the ZTL.
Borgo Ognissanti begins to the west of Pz. Goldoni and runs past Pz. Ognissanti into the RED zone (or Section D. It is One Way out of the city.
On the Commune di Firenze map on this page, go to where the red and yellow sections meet, find the Arno,and that little black rectangle at Ponte a Carraira is more or less where Borgo Ognissanti begins.
By the way, the poster who stated that they would be staying in a B&B upon return should know that it seems that B&Bs (as well as convents) may not fare as well as bona fide hotels for the purposes of ZTL encroachment. So be sure that the rental agency reports your entrance-- to protect yourself from a ticket six months later. (And even then, I'd save all my paperwork until about April 15, just to be safe!)
Some itineraries are always allowed even in ZTL areas. If you look carefully, some streets in the above map are marked in yellow - they are the allowed streets. Half of Borgognissanti is allowed (from via Melegnano to via Curtatone).
The ratio under this is that you are allowed to drive the Vespucci bridge - Borgo Ognissanti - Il Prato itinerary at all times - even if it is completely enclosed in a ZTL zone - thus relieving some traffic from Vittoria bridge.
There is a ZTL zone marked in yellow on the map. There are also a number of streets marked in a slightly different yellow. These streets are ones on which you are allowed to drive without penalty.
Jerry
The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see. ~G.K. Chesterton
Originally posted by JDeQ: I think that all of the chatter about picking up a rental car and avoiding the ZTL has created a sense that it is worse than it is. Leaving the Borgo Ognissanti car rental area is quite easy! Frankly, if we were able to do it a trained chimp could as well.
We found the car rental company was quite good at providing directions out of the city.
Thanks for mentioning this Jerry! I have been following these threads with interest, and frankly the whole thing had begun to loom rather large in my brain :-) Hey, how about I just smear a little mud on my plates before attempting the feat? Ha Ha :-) I'll make sure I get a good map - although I imagine they have them at the rental outlets. Thanks again.
I'll make sure I get a good map - although I imagine they have them at the rental outlets.
The maps at the rental car outlets are OK for driving between large cities on the major highways...but not much more. Europcar has had the best Italy map, but it still is only really useful for major roads. The rental car maps are virtually useless for city navigation in my experience.
The ATAC (Rome) and ATAF (Florence) maps (pdf downloadable) are generally what I use. I download the sections I want and print them on a color printer.
Map 1 (in the center) is of the centro storico. Click on the map number in the list below the map mosaic and it will open and there will be a downloadable, printable pdf version of that map... "Versione stampabile PDF"
When leaving towns in Italy, you can look for "Tutte le direzione" signs. Follow them and you will come to a sign that will indicate how to go in the direction you wish. (I don't whether these signs will automatically keep you out of a ZTL. Personally, the cost of a ZTL fine is enough for me to plan and double check a route ahead of time.)
Almost every town has a sign pointing to the Centro Storico.
A couple of things that have been consistent in my experience in driving in Italy. 1. If you see a sign indicating the way to a town, or to the autostrada, you can follow it and eventually you'll get to where you intend. Subsequent, confirming, signs to the same place are farther apart than you would find in the US. I remember following a sign to the autostrada in Sicily and when I came to an impromptu garbage dump, I was sure I had missed a turn, but I kept going an eventually came to an interchange. That has been my experience over and over in Italy.
2. The route you follow, particularly with a "Tutte Le Direzione" sign, may take you 3/4 of the way around town before you see another sign to the place you want to go.
3a. U.S. drivers new to Europe can be fooled by a blue sign with a horizontal straight white arrow and mistake it for a indication to make a turn, particularly when the sign is on the right and it seems to be indicating a left turn. Generally, this type of sign means "take the traffic lane to the immediate left of this sign (for a left-pointing arrow or vice-versa for a right-pointing sign). Many times a sign you may think is telling you to turn left is really saying continute straight ahead in the lane to the left of this sign.
3b. A sign indicating a turn will almost always have a vertical line that curves at the top to the right or left to indicate the direction you are to turn.
