Italy’s Euro 5 diesel ban: postponed to 1 October 2027, and what still applies

The Po Valley’s Euro 5 diesel ban was meant to start in four regions on 1 October 2026. Three pulled out in the weeks before, and on 28 September 2026 the Government and Lombardy postponed it for everyone. It now starts nowhere before 1 October 2027. Here is what still restricts an older diesel this winter.

By ZTL Italia · Guide last reviewed 2 October 2026

The short answer

The ban was agreed across the four regions of the Po Valley and, under national Law 105/2025, limited to municipalities of more than 100,000 people. In the weeks before it was due, three of the four regions pulled out. Then, on 28 September 2026, three days before the start, the Government published Decree-Law 167/2026, which moves the deadline for all four regions by a year, and Lombardy adopted its own postponement the same day. This is where things stand for winter 2026–27:

Two things have not changed anywhere. Older vehicles — diesel up to Euro 4 in most places — are still restricted every winter under rules that have run for years. And in Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, when air pollution builds up, the restrictions extend to Euro 5 diesels for days at a time. Both are covered below.

Does this affect you?

Only if you are driving a diesel car whose emissions class is Euro 5 or lower. Petrol, hybrid and electric cars are not touched by the rule, and neither is any diesel that meets Euro 6.

The class is not the same as the car’s age, so look it up rather than guessing. On an EU registration certificate it is in field V.9, the environmental category, which is part of the harmonised certificate every member state issues. If that field is blank on your document, the manufacturer or your national registration authority can confirm the class from the vehicle identification number.

A hire car collected in Italy is the easier case: the question is simply what the desk gives you. Ask for the car’s fuel type and Euro class when you collect it, and keep the answer with the rental agreement.

Lombardy: was due to start, now postponed to 2027

Lombardy was the one region that had meant to go ahead. Its regional deliberation 4843 of 28 July 2025 applied the ban in its four municipalities of more than 100,000 people — Milan, Brescia, Monza and Bergamo — with cars first, from 1 October 2026. That has changed. On 28 September 2026 the Government published Decree-Law 167/2026, which moves the Po Valley deadline for Euro 5 diesel limits by a year, and the Region adopted deliberation 6846 of the same date, postponing its own limits to 1 October 2027. The Comune di Bergamo’s notice, for one, tells drivers they can carry on under the rules already in force.

As originally written, the scheme was phased by type of vehicle — minibuses and light and medium goods vehicles from 1 October 2027, heavy goods vehicles and buses from 1 October 2028 — and ran Monday to Friday, 07:30 to 19:30, all year, over the whole municipality rather than the historic centre. We have not seen a revised timetable for the categories that were due after cars, so treat those dates as provisional.

The practical upshot for a visitor in a Euro 5 diesel is that a weekday in Bergamo or Brescia this winter is not restricted by this rule. It is not a guarantee for the longer term: a decree-law has to be converted into law by Parliament within 60 days of publication, and the older-vehicle rules below still apply.

Milan is a separate question

The postponement does not touch Area B, the municipal low-emission zone that covers most of Milan and runs its own calendar of banned classes. Check your car’s Euro class against that calendar before you drive in. Our Milan guide covers Area B and Area C in full.

The older Lombard rules still apply

Lombardy has restricted older vehicles all year for some time, on the same Monday-to-Friday, 07:30–19:30 pattern. In the region’s two most polluted bands of municipalities, known as Fascia 1 and Fascia 2, petrol, diesel, LPG and methane vehicles of Euro 0 and 1, and diesels of Euro 2 and 3, may not be driven. Diesel Euro 4 is banned too in Fascia 1 and in a handful of named Fascia 2 towns, such as Varese and Lecco. Milan is in Fascia 1, and so, for example, is Como.

Lombardy also offers Move-In, which swaps the time bans for an annual mileage allowance measured by a black box fitted to the car. It is designed for owners based in the region; we could not find any published provision for foreign-registered cars, and fitting a device for a short trip is not realistic. For a visitor it is not a way round the rules.

Emilia-Romagna: suspended, but winter rules still run

On 11 September 2026 the Region announced that it would not apply the ban from 1 October 2026 in its nine municipalities of more than 100,000 people — Piacenza, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna, Ferrara, Ravenna, Forlì and Rimini — and would rely on other anti-pollution measures instead.

The region’s standing winter rules, part of its air plan PAIR 2030, are unaffected. They repeat every year from 1 October to 31 March, Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 18:30, in the lowland municipalities the plan covers, which include Bologna and the other large cities. They bar:

• diesel vehicles up to and including Euro 4;
• petrol vehicles, and petrol–LPG and petrol–methane vehicles, up to Euro 2;
• mopeds and motorcycles up to Euro 2.

When PM10 pollution is forecast to exceed its limit, emergency measures add diesel cars up to Euro 5, and can apply at weekends as well. For winter 2026–27 the Region has also lengthened the emergency hours by an hour, to 08:00–19:00. So a Euro 5 diesel is not banned in Bologna this winter as a matter of routine — but it can be, at short notice, on the days that matter.

Veneto: postponed to 1 October 2027

Veneto’s regional council voted on 15 September 2026 to postpone the ban by a year, to 1 October 2027, and the regional government adopted the compensating measures the postponement depends on three days later. Verona, Padua, Vicenza and Venice are therefore outside it this winter.

Veneto’s own winter scheme still applies. Each municipality issues an ordinance every autumn under a regional framework with three alert levels, announced by the regional environment agency, ARPAV, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and applied from the following day. Verona’s ordinance for last winter shows how it works:

• Green, with no alert: Monday to Friday, 08:30–18:30, petrol cars up to Euro 1 and diesel cars up to Euro 4 may not be driven.
• Orange, after four consecutive days above the PM10 limit: every day, weekends included, and the ban reaches diesel cars up to Euro 5 and petrol up to Euro 2.
• Red, after ten consecutive days: stricter again.

Details vary by municipality and by year, so check the ordinance for the town you are driving into.

Piedmont: cancelled

On 29 June 2026 the Region announced that an update to its air-quality plan had cancelled the structural ban that would have applied in Turin and Novara from October to April, replacing it with other measures. That decision concerns the Euro 5 ban only; it does not lift the separate winter restrictions on older vehicles, so check the Comune before driving an older car into Turin.

Foreign plates are not exempt

These rules restrict vehicles by their emissions class. Nothing in them exempts a car because it is registered abroad, and the regional schemes apply to every vehicle on the road in the areas they cover. A foreign-registered Euro 5 diesel in Brescia on a Wednesday morning is in the same position as a local one.

Nor are they ZTLs. A ZTL permit, a hotel registering your plate, or a disabled badge for a historic centre does nothing about an emissions ban, and because the emissions rules cover the whole built-up area, parking on the edge of the old town does not take you outside them. Italy’s driving zones explained sets out how the two kinds of scheme differ.

What to do

• Check the class first. Field V.9 on the registration certificate. If the car is Euro 6 diesel, petrol from Euro 3 upwards, hybrid or electric, this page is not about you, though the Euro 4 and older rules above still are.
• Euro 5 diesel anywhere in the Po Valley, Lombardy included: no routine ban this winter, but check the alert level on the day. In Emilia-Romagna and Veneto the ban reaches your car on emergency or orange days.
• Euro 4 diesel or older: expect weekday restrictions in the main towns of Emilia-Romagna and Veneto between October and the spring, all year in much of Lombardy, and check the local rules in Piedmont.

Of everything on this site, this page is the most likely to date. Two postponements in two years, and a national decree-law still awaiting conversion, mean the rules can move again, and each municipality publishes its own ordinance each autumn. Confirm the position with the Region or the Comune before you set off.

Sources

Lombardy: Regione Lombardia, Misure permanenti per migliorare la qualità dell’aria (DGR 4843 of 28 July 2025 and DGR 6846 of 28 September 2026; page updated 30 September 2026), and the Comune di Bergamo notice of 29 September 2026. National: Decree-Law 28 September 2026, n. 167 (Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 225), amending article 1(2) of Decree-Law 121/2023. Emilia-Romagna: Regione Emilia-Romagna, 11 September 2026, and its annual PAIR 2030 winter measures. Veneto: regional council vote of 15 September 2026 and compensating measures of 18 September 2026, as reported by ANSA; alert levels from the Comune di Verona. Piedmont: Regione Piemonte, 29 June 2026. Registration field V.9: Council Directive 1999/37/EC on registration documents for vehicles.