How we source and check the ZTL data

Most ZTL information online is copied from somewhere else and never checked again. Every city page on this site was checked against the town’s own rules. Here is how, what it found, and where the rest of the data comes from.

By ZTL Italia · Methodology last reviewed 22 September 2026

What checking found

Between 25 and 31 August 2026 we checked the timetable and the text of all 56 city pages then on the site against each Comune’s own publication or the ordinance itself. The data had been assembled from the best secondary sources available. It did not hold up:

• 35 of the 56 pages carried at least one error and were corrected.
• 14 timetables survived unchanged — and in several of those the check is what established that a strict rule, such as a zone closed around the clock, was right rather than merely unchallenged.
• 7 pages had no timetable at all. Every one was found at the Comune, and none turned out to be hard to find.

The errors were not random. Most pointed the way that gets a driver fined: a zone recorded as opening when it does not, or open for longer than it is. A few examples of what the check turned up:

• Lecce reversed its ZTL in August 2025. The record described the old regime — close to the opposite of the new one — and so does much of what is still published online.
• Verona’s hours were about 22 months out of date. The published time slots turned out to be booking windows for local residents, not openings for visitors.
• Siracusa’s Ortigia was recorded as a weekend-evening zone. Under an ordinance of March 2026 it is restricted every day.
• Orvieto’s timetable described one gate out of four — the seasonal one — while the other three run around the clock all year.

Where a correction affected a guide as well as a city page, the guide was corrected too.

How a city page is checked

We rank our sources, and a lower one never overrides a higher one:

1. The ordinance — the Comune’s ordinanza, which is what the camera enforces.
2. The Comune or its mobility agency — official notices, the municipal police, or the operator of the gates.
3. Local reporting — only where the Comune publishes nothing that can be reached, and then only where two independent reports agree.
4. Secondary sources — a starting point for finding a zone, never proof that its timetable is current.

In practice, checking a page means:

• going to the ordinance rather than a summary page, which can lag by years;
• confirming the date the source describes, not just that it looks current;
• counting the gates, because they do not always share a timetable;
• working out who a published time applies to — very often residents, deliveries or hotel guests, not visitors;
• and, where the hours cannot be confirmed, saying so on the page rather than guessing.

That fourth step catches more errors than any other. A time printed on a Comune’s website is frequently a loading window or a residents’ booking slot, and a summary that repeats it as “the ZTL is open from…” sends visitors in at exactly the wrong moment.

What we track

Each restricted area on the map is one record: its town and region, the type of zone, a timetable where there is one, notes on gates and exemptions, a source, and the boundary drawn on the map. The type of zone decides what the timetable means:

• Limited Traffic Zone (ZTL) — permit holders only while it is active; the timetable is a window you can wait out.
• Pedestrian area — a flat ban with no opening hours.
• Charge zone — open to anyone who pays; the hours say when the charge applies.
• Emissions zone — a ban by the car’s Euro class across a whole built-up area.

Where the boundaries come from

Boundaries are a separate question from timetables, and a harder one: a Comune’s ordinance lists streets and gates, but very few publish the outline as data. We are replacing traced outlines with official open data wherever a Comune publishes it. So far that covers nine cities:

• Bergamo — Comune di Bergamo via Regione Lombardia (dati.lombardia.it), IODL 2.0, retrieved 22 September 2026; simplified for display.
• Bologna — Comune di Bologna (opendata.comune.bologna.it), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 21 September 2026; simplified for display.
• Ferrara — Comune di Ferrara (sit.comune.fe.it, WFS), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 22 September 2026; simplified for display.
• Florence — Comune di Firenze (data.comune.fi.it, ZTL diurna), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 21 September 2026; simplified for display.
• Milan — Comune di Milano (dati.comune.milano.it, Area C + Arco della Pace + Sarpi), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 23 September 2026; simplified for display.
• Milan — Comune di Milano (dati.comune.milano.it, Navigli ZTLs, ord. 648/2015), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 23 September 2026; simplified for display.
• Milan — Comune di Milano (dati.comune.milano.it, Navigli pedestrian areas), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 23 September 2026; simplified for display.
• Milan — Comune di Milano (dati.comune.milano.it, Area B; narrow road corridors smoothed), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 24 September 2026; simplified for display.
• Modena — Comune di Modena (geonext.comune.modena.it, WFS), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 22 September 2026; simplified for display.
• Pavia — Comune di Pavia via Regione Lombardia (dati.lombardia.it), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 23 September 2026; simplified for display.
• Reggio Emilia — Comune di Reggio Emilia (opendata.comune.re.it, 2011 layer), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 23 September 2026; simplified for display.
• Trento — Comune di Trento (gis.comune.trento.it), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 21 September 2026; simplified for display.

The remaining outlines are traced from those published on accessibilitacentristorici.it. Every outline is simplified for display, and the base map is by OpenFreeMap, © OpenMapTiles, with data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Each city page says which source its outline comes from.

Coverage and limitations

58 city pages have been checked this way, across 20 regions. Smaller towns appear on their region’s page and rely on secondary sources, and so do most zone boundaries. This is an independent guide, not an official source: timetables are indicative and change by season, day and gate, and a rule can change the week after a page is checked. Every page shows the date it was last reviewed. Before you drive, confirm with the local Comune and read the sign at the gate.

Corrections

Readers find changes before we do. When Milan’s Area C started charging at weekends, it was a reader’s question that caught it. If a rule has changed or we have something wrong, tell us through the contact page — ideally with the town, the street or gate, and the ordinance number or a photo of the sign. Corrections are checked at the source like everything else before they go on the site.