Italy’s Euro 5 diesel ban from 1 October 2026: where it really applies

The Po Valley’s Euro 5 diesel ban was meant to start in four regions on 1 October 2026. It now starts in one. Here is where an older diesel can and cannot go this winter, and the older rules that still apply everywhere.

By ZTL Italia · Guide last reviewed 22 September 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. 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 new 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: the one region where it starts

Lombardy’s regional deliberation 4843 of 28 July 2025 applies the ban in its four municipalities of more than 100,000 people: Milan, Brescia, Monza and Bergamo. It is phased by type of vehicle:

• Cars (category M1): from 1 October 2026.
• Minibuses and light and medium goods vehicles (M2, N1, N2): from 1 October 2027.
• Heavy goods vehicles and buses (M3, N3): from 1 October 2028.

The ban runs Monday to Friday, 07:30 to 19:30, except on public holidays that fall on a weekday. Unlike the seasonal schemes in the other regions, it is not a winter-only measure: it applies from 1 January to 31 December, every year. It covers the municipality, not the historic centre, so parking outside the old town does not help.

The practical upshot for a visitor in a Euro 5 diesel is about timing. Weekends are outside the ban, and so is a weekday arrival after 19:30. A Saturday in Bergamo or Brescia is untouched by it; a Tuesday afternoon is not.

Milan changes least

For Milan itself the new rule adds little, because Area B, the low-emission zone that covers most of the city, already requires diesel cars to be Euro 6 on weekdays. A Euro 5 diesel was already barred from almost all of Milan. What changes is that the same car is now also barred from Bergamo, Brescia and Monza — the day trips people make from Milan. 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 five Fascia 2 towns of more than 30,000 people. 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, heading to Lombardy: keep out of Milan, Brescia, Bergamo and Monza on weekdays between 07:30 and 19:30. Arrive at a weekend or in the evening, or leave the car outside the municipality and take the train in.
• Euro 5 diesel anywhere else in the Po Valley: 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 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; page updated 21 May 2026). 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.