ZTL zones in Lombardy

Driving in Lombardy

Lombardy is the region where the question is less often when you are driving than what you are driving. Milan layers a congestion charge, a city-wide emissions zone and more than twenty ZTLs on top of one another, and the region applies emissions bans of its own that reach well beyond any historic centre.

Fifty-two towns on the map restrict their centres. Six have their own page, checked against the Comune’s own rules: Milan, Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Mantua and Sirmione.

Milan: three systems at once

Area C is a charge over the centre, levied every day from 07:30 to 19:30 — weekends included since January 2026, national holidays excepted. Area B is an emissions ban over almost the whole city, Monday to Friday. And inside both sit ZTLs that no ticket opens, such as the Quadrilatero della Moda, closed around the clock. Driving in Milan works through them in the order they catch people out.

Emissions rules that follow you out of Milan

Lombardy had planned to ban Euro 5 diesel cars on weekdays from 07:30 to 19:30 in Milan, Brescia, Bergamo and Monza from 1 October 2026; on 28 September 2026 that was postponed to 1 October 2027. Older vehicles — diesel up to Euro 3 and, in the most polluted band of towns, Euro 4 — are already restricted on the same hours across much of the region.

Emissions rules are not about the historic centre, and a ZTL permit does nothing for them: they cover the whole municipality, foreign plates included. The Euro 5 diesel guide sets out the postponement and who is caught now.

The cities beyond Milan

In Bergamo it is the upper town, Città Alta, that is closed around the clock; the zones in the lower town run to their own hours. Brescia runs three timetables at once — permanent, daytime, and a shorter daytime band around Contrada del Cavalletto — and Mantua’s centre, on its peninsula between the lakes, is restricted around the clock.

Several smaller cities also keep their centres closed all day. Monza, Pavia, Lodi and Varese are recorded as restricted around the clock, Lecco divides its old centre into nine small zones, most of them permanent, and Cremona is partly always-on and partly restricted by time of day, gate by gate. These come from secondary sources and have not been checked against the Comuni; they are listed below with their hours.

The lakes

Lombardy shares Lake Garda with Veneto and Trentino. Sirmione, on its peninsula, is one of the strictest towns on the lake, closed to everyone but residents and hotel guests through the summer, and the Garda guide covers the whole shore.

On Lake Como, the city of Como is restricted around the clock, and the map also shows zones at Bellagio, Tremezzina and Colico, with Iseo on its own smaller lake to the east. We have not yet checked their hours, so treat each lakeside centre as closed until the sign says otherwise.