2953 On Street Car Parking

My email of a couple of weeks ago about auto strada toll booths, brought some interesting responses. Thanks everone - now I know I'm not the only one to be confused at times!

However no one addressed my second question, which I reproduce here. Has anyone heard of such a sytem?? Is there anyone from Teramo region on the Forum who may be able to sched some light? Maybe its a very local system.

"Once I'm off the autostrada and into town, we have to park. No problem usually, but recently in Teramo we parked in a designated street parking area. When we returned we had a ticket advising us of the parking fee - but there was nowhere to pay it? It almost seemed as though you were expected to find the ticket issuer and pay him as he wandered about his patch. Any guidance/thoughts on this? "

Category
General chat about Italy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 03/15/2006 - 08:09

I can't offer a definitive ruling on street car parking - could anyone!

What you might find, in Teramo, is a system whereby depending on the colour of the paint outlining the parking spaces, some will be free, some will be time limited, and some will be a pagamento.

You might (sometimes you have to be eagle-eyed) find a sort of communal parking meter which will spit you out a ticket to stick on the windscreen - alternatively you may need to nip into a local tobacconist (occasionally the grocer...) and buy a sort of scratch card.

You might have got a ticket simply for having failed to display your time of arrival, if it was one of those free but time-limited parking spaces!

None of this applies to Rome. There, you double park, leaving your window open so anybody who is inconvenienced can reach in and sound your horn. You are obliged (by law!!) to be capable of recognising the sound of your own horn!

Now - there is a market if I've ever spotted one - personalised horn tones...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 03/15/2006 - 11:37

I dont really know - but Blue spaces - u need the dial u stick in the window

Buy 1 for €1 at a Tabbachi or newsagent

I cant remember which way round it is -

is it yellow for residents

and white for free parking?

or is it different in each town?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 03/15/2006 - 11:59

in teramo the blue spaces are controlled by people in orange jackets and when you park its best to pay them at least for an hour... its actually a very good system here... it provides work for many of the not so well off as regards physical or mental conditions... but they are always polite and friendly and almost make it a pleasure to pay ...
but there are certain difficulties... best not to try and find one of them at lunch time or after seven ... so the basic rule is if arriving close to ..say within an hour of those times is to always pay them first.. e0.80 for the first hour... as regards how long you can stay the areas have street signs...generally those along the street marked in blue are limited to the hour places like piazza dante and the squares outside the law courts allow you to park longer....

the best places to park legally if you want to spend a lot of time are the two main multi storey parks... one is just off piazza garibaldi and you can pick up the signs for it as you go around the square ... or the other is opposite the main bus station... neither i guess are that obvious because they are set into the ground rather than above ... the one by the bus station i find if i use them more convenient .. you get into the old part of teramo very quickly ...say a couple of minutes walk ...the other one about five mins...

they also have battery operated small busses which you can use to get around if you do not feel like walking...

or else you can do as suggested above ... park basically where you like... whenever.. you will have obviously noticed this anyway ... the chances of getting a ticket are not absurdly high... we have had one in three years... which was recently...so maybe they are employing more of the wardens... and it might be best to do it right..

oh yes... yellow spaces here..are clearly marked as disabled and white ones are free...