ZTL Como: closed around the clock — and right now there are two sets of rules

There are two sets, and the switch date is not set. Until the new discipline starts, what applies is ordinance 11 of 13 January 2017: a speed limit of 10 km/h and four pedestrian areas — Alessandro Volta, Duomo, Perretta and Juvara — with hotel guests admitted through an authorisation obtained after the fact. The new discipline, approved on 5 August 2026, replaces those with a red and a green pedestrian area, drops the limit to 6 km/h, introduces €3 daily passes, and grants hotel access only where the property has its own private parking. It takes effect only when the implementing ordinance is published AND the new signage is in place: 60 posts and 154 signs, costed at €62,000, on an indicative 100-day programme from the August decision — and the council's own papers say those dates may change. Every permit already issued stays valid until 23:59 on 31 December 2026. So for a trip in the next weeks the old rules may still be the ones that count. Tell us your dates and we will put the question to the Comune di Como rather than guess.

Into the restricted zone, yes — a vehicle serving a holder of the badge under art. 381 DPR 495/92 is the one general exception, on condition that the plate has been notified. Into the pedestrian core, no. Under the new discipline the APU ROSSA — piazza Duomo, piazza Cavour, piazza Volta, piazza San Fedele, piazza Verdi and the streets between them — is closed to ALL vehicles 24 hours a day, explicitly including those displaying a disabled badge; only emergency services, refuse collection, street cleaning and vehicles reaching a private garage with a carriage entrance. There is no permit that changes that. And article 7 of the council's access rules allows an authorisation after the fact — an autorizzazione in sanatoria — through the council's portal with NO administrative fee, if the plate is notified within 48 hours of driving through.

No. The council's online system accepts only SPID or the Italian electronic ID card. There is no counter, no paper form and no exception for visitors, so everything has to go through the accommodation. This is the single hardest thing about Como for a foreign visitor, and it is why we ring the property on your behalf.

Under the rules in force today — ordinance 11 of 13 January 2017 — the property can obtain an authorisation after the fact for your plate: ONE entry on the check-in day and ONE on the check-out day, 45 minutes each, with the property reporting the plate to the Polizia Locale. If it does have private parking spaces, guests can be admitted for the whole stay, capped at the number of spaces. Under the new discipline that second route becomes the only one: authorisation for guests is granted only to accommodation inside the ZTL that has its own private parking, the number of daily authorisations is capped at the number of spaces, and parking in the street is forbidden. So the question to ask before booking is not can I drive in but DO YOU HAVE A PRIVATE PARKING SPACE FOR ME.

Ten kilometres an hour today, under ordinance 11 of 13 January 2017. Six — yes, six — under the discipline approved on 5 August 2026, once that starts. Separately, vehicles over 3.5 tonnes or longer than 7 metres are barred outright without a separate authorisation, which matters to anyone in a large camper van.

Not riding. Bicycles and scooters must be WHEELED BY HAND in the pedestrian areas and in via Cesare Cantù, via Rovelli, via Adamo Del Pero, via Bernardino Luini, via Boldoni, via Indipendenza and part of via Vittorio Emanuele II. Riding them there is a violation, not a grey area.

The council publishes the complete list: 67 streets and squares. The ones a visitor is most likely to be staying on or near are piazza Cavour and piazza Volta on the lakefront, piazza Duomo, via Vittorio Emanuele, via Volta, piazza San Fedele, piazza Verdi by the Teatro Sociale, via Garibaldi, via Diaz, viale Battisti, via Cairoli, via Carducci, via Indipendenza, via Rodari, via Grassi, piazza Mazzini, piazza Roma, via Bianchi Giovini, via Muralto, via Giovio, via Rovelli, via Natta, via Odescalchi, via Cesare Cantù, via Cinque Giornate, via Porta, via Pretorio, via Bellini, via Juvara, piazza Perretta, piazza Grimoldi and via Maestri Cumacini. Send us the address and we will check it against the published list.

There is a single-use day permit, for people with a specific, documented need not covered by any other category: 60 minutes' parking maximum, with the time of arrival displayed. A one-off permit needs TWO WORKING DAYS' notice and lasts a maximum of two consecutive days. For a wedding inside the ZTL, up to two vehicles with 120 minutes.

A €16 duty stamp plus handling fees of €5 to €20. It is free for holders of a disabled badge, and the after-the-fact authorisation for badge holders carries no administrative fee at all. The new discipline approved in August 2026 also introduces €3 daily passes, which are not available until it takes effect.

Licensed coaches carrying hotel guests may enter, but only along a fixed route — piazza Verdi, via Rodari, piazza Roma, via Giovini, piazza Cavour, via Fontana, via Cairoli — with NO STOPPING anywhere except piazza Cavour, for a maximum of 15 minutes. If your transfer is quoted as door-to-door inside the walled town, check which of those points it actually means.

Yes, and that is exactly why. Every permit valid when the current access rules came into force remains effective until 31 DECEMBER 2026, unless it expires sooner or is revoked. After that date it may not, so a permit someone used last month is not evidence of what will work next year.

Not without a title to do so. The ZTL CITTÀ MURATA covers the walled town and is closed 00:00–24:00 EVERY DAY, and closed means transit, stopping AND parking — it is imposed under art. 47 comma 2 of the Codice della Strada. It includes the Mercato Mercerie area along via Cattaneo, piazza Vittoria, largo Spallino and viale Battisti. Park outside and walk in.

Seven entry gates and five exit gates read number plates, and — as in Lucca — the system records how long the vehicle stayed, not merely that it entered. If you hold a disabled badge there is a real remedy: article 7 of the access rules allows an authorisation after the fact through the council's portal, with no administrative fee, if the plate is notified WITHIN 48 HOURS. The same after-the-fact route covers vehicles taking women or minors home to a ZTL address between 23:00 and 05:00, and vehicles going to the duty pharmacy for oxygen, urgent prescription medicines, or accompanying a disabled or elderly person in a medical emergency. Outside those categories there is no such window. Tell us what happened and we will put it to the Polizia Locale on +39 031 252700.

The old town is the walled town, and it is closed to motor vehicles around the clock, every day — transit, stopping and parking alike. Inside it there are pedestrian areas that are stricter still: today those are Alessandro Volta, Duomo, Perretta and Juvara under ordinance 11 of 13 January 2017; under the new discipline they become a red area closed to all vehicles 24 hours a day and a green one closed from 11:01 to 05:59. Unless your accommodation is inside and can register your plate, leave the car outside the walls.

Through your accommodation, not yourself. Applications go through the council's portal at pass.brav.it, which accepts only SPID or the Italian electronic ID card, so a foreign visitor cannot apply personally — there is no counter and no paper form. Costs are a €16 duty stamp plus €5 to €20 in handling fees, free for disabled badge holders, and a one-off permit needs two working days' notice. Diplomatic and consular plates need no authorisation at all, along with police, fire, civil protection and ambulances.

Two questions, in this order. First: DO YOU HAVE A PRIVATE PARKING SPACE FOR ME? Under the new discipline a property can only get you in if it has its own private parking, with daily authorisations capped at the number of spaces and street parking forbidden. Second: WILL YOU REGISTER MY PLATE, and for which days? While ordinance 11 of 13 January 2017 still applies, the property can file an authorisation after the fact covering one entry on the check-in day and one on the check-out day, 45 minutes each. Ask them to confirm against your actual dates, because the two sets of rules change what they are able to do.

Yes, twice a day, and the afternoon one is only thirty minutes. Article 3 of ordinance 11/2017 closes the Duomo pedestrian area to every motor vehicle from 10:30 to 14:30 and from 15:00 round to 06:00, disabled badge holders expressly included. But between 06:00 and 10:30, and between 14:30 and 15:00, the ordinary ZTL rules apply there instead, so a vehicle authorised for the ZTL may pass. The Alessandro Volta area, by contrast, is shut 24 hours a day with no window at all.

Not necessarily the one you came in by. The council publishes both lists. You enter by via Cinque Giornate, via Diaz, via Carducci, via Indipendenza, via Rodari, via Grassi or via Cairoli; you leave by via dell'Annunciata, via Indipendenza, via Rodari, via Cairoli or via Garibaldi. Only three names appear on both lists - via Cinque Giornate, via Diaz, via Carducci and via Grassi take you in but not out, while via dell'Annunciata and via Garibaldi are exits only.

Almost certainly not. Article 4 comma 2 of ordinance 11/2017 bans any vehicle over 3.5 tonnes laden or longer than 7.00 metres from the ZTL and the pedestrian areas outright, unless the Settore Strade e Reti Tecnologiche issues a specific authorisation. Seven metres is short - it rules out most campers and any minibus transfer. And even if you were authorised, parking is forbidden throughout the zone 24 hours a day with forced removal.