Wow, that is pretty arcane. Was Amex involved? I have had very good success with them on disputes lately.

My neighbor received a citation in the mail for 'speeding' about 8 months after she returned from Italy. She thought it was a shake down too and opted to ignore it because she figured she'd never return.

Are they including interest?? No advice, just another "shake-down" story:

My friend and her daughter went to Rome and after walking for hours, sat down at an outdoor cafe to rest for a few minutes. As they got up to leave, the owner ran after them and demanded they fork over $25 (American $) for using his furniture without purchasing anything! They were so shocked that they paid and high-tailed outta Dodge.

We do want to return to Italy, but I think that at worst, my brother would not be allowed to rent another car, but then there would be nothing stopping me from renting one in my name. My brother paid the garage with Visa, and I am going to email the hotel today, as I do not have enough info on the garage. The name of the garage is Garage Del Bergello, 458 Firenze. It looks like the garage has email as well, but I wonder whether they would even respond. Part of the problem is that the citation does not have a single date listed, and so the garage could claim that we got the citation on a different day. They also have an app (or something) for chat, and so once I have composed what I want to say to them, I will use that.

I have a pool guy coming in 15 minutes to give me an estimate, and so I will have to wait until after he leaves.

Pool guy was from South Africa, and he told me that if we did not take care of this citation, we would not be allowed back into Italy. He also recommended that we visit the Italian embassy/consulate in person.

Lars, this may help: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/22/travel/la-tr-spot-20120722

Thanks! That did help. However, I did reread the citation - this time the Italian version, and it did list a date, and it now appears that the citation was for driving on a street that was restricted during certain hours only in Tivoli. The date coincides with the date we were in Tivoli, and so we did not get a ticket for driving in Florence. Now we have to figure out how to pay the ticket. There is one price if the ticket is paid within 60 days and another price for after that, but the ticket says that the time starts from when we receive the ticket. Since the letter was not registered, there is no proof of when we received it, and the postmark on the envelope is Nov 20, 2017 - still more than a year from when the infraction occurred.

I'll call the consulate tomorrow, if possible, as they are closed on Thursdays. I am going to UCLA for a cardio test tomorrow, and so I might not have time to call the consulate then.

My husband traveled to the Netherlands on business for many years. He accrued several speeding tickets from highway cameras. They were mailed to our home in the US. We sent a check to pay them, trying to account for the exchange rate. Then, many months later he was flying home out of Amsterdam and was pulled aside at passport control by the airport police. We had not completely paid the fines. I can't remember how much, he didn't have enough cash to pay what was owed. He had to go back out through security to an ATM and go back through again.

So maybe they'd let you back into Italy, but not let you leave without paying.

I sent an email to the consulate, but I might not get a response. I wanted to know exactly how much we need to pay. I would expect the lower amount, since we only just received the ticket, but I don't know how they calculate time. I would rather pay 14 extra Euros and be done with it than have to pay another $50 for the bank transfer for the additional €24, if that is what we have to pay. I asked if I could pay at the consulate, but I doubt that will be an option.

My daughter lived in Italy while in college and for a year afterwards so I am aware of their strict driving restrictions. The wheels move slowly in Italy so my guess is that they are just catching up with you now! ("I did reread the citation -citation was for driving on a street that was restricted during certain hours only in Tivoli. The date coincides with the date we were in Tivoli, and so we did not get a ticket for driving in Florence.") Cameras are on all restricted streets and they will fine you for violating the restriction.

Call the consulate for advice before paying the fine. You will most likely end up paying it, but go through the proper channels for your peace of mind.

Very frustrating, but partly because of the archaic US bank transfer system. One possibility might be to contact the car rental agency and ask if you can pay them by credit card for a service fee.

I suggest checking out the travel forums on the Rick steves website. I remember tickets coming up a lot there. We weren't planning to (and did not) rent a car so I did not pay much attention, but I know that tickets often come much after the fact and there was considerable advice in dealing with them.

It's not uncommon to get hit with an infraction due to the number of surveillance cameras in use in Europe. It takes a while for them to work through your rental company and get back to you, but 1.5 years is unusual. I'd find a way to pay. If either of you have a brokerage account, they may have low cost or free wire international IBAN transfers available.

I've not checked Rick Steve's site (not a fan), but I will look for it. TripAdvisor has some good travel forums, and I got a lot of advice about Mana Island, Fiji there.

Neither of us have a brokerage account. I'll see if I can get any info from the consulate, but we were planning to go to Kevin's bank on Saturday and pay the larger amount - his bank also charges $50 for an international transfer, and it is a credit union!

I had a very similar experience. We evidently drove in the area of Florence where we needed a permit, and we were not aware. They notified me at least a couple of years later that it needed to be paid, and it had now increased in price significantly. I ended up just paying it, as it was to overwhleming to figure out how to fix it. It just had a very 'corrupt' feel about. Why hadn't I been notified way before that time?!

OMG, we just got one of these in the mail! From Madrid from last summer. The odd thing is the english grammar on it is awful --- i think Google translate could do better. Apparently we violated "6 ORD. MOV." !

Cripes.

ETA - they do give us a logon and website to get more info ... and pay!

It would have been nice if we could have paid on line, but that was not an option. Kevin went to his bank Tuesday morning and made the transfer. I still need to get the confirmation and email the police in Tivoli that we have made the payment. I will also send them proof of the date of delivery of their notice, which we got from the Post Office.

Two years is definitely too long for them to take to send you a notice. They have to send it within one year of receiving info from the rental car agency, which only has three months to give info to the police. Ours was mailed just barely 15 months from when the offense was committed.