Changes

You can get a free map of whole Italy at almost every gas station (autogrill) with all gas stations listed in the map.

Even though most Italians say not to speak English they seem to understand a lot of English. They also claim to not speak Spanish if you ask them, but they will almost always understand a whole lot of Spanish. Hitchhiking is ''autostop'' in Italian. Just say ''autostop'' and your destination or show your thumb, otherwise they often think you are asking how to get somewhere, as '''Italy''' has a lot of tourists. The northern part of Italy is quite safe, but take care in the south of '''Italy'''.

Italy is in the [[Schengen treaty]], and so are [[France]], [[Austria]] and [[Slovenia]], but [[Switzerland]] is not. Border crossing will be no problem at all.

Hitchhiking on the ''autostrada'' is not legal (there are big signs saying ''no autostop'' at all highway entries), but it is unclear even to Italians whether this extends to gas stations (''area servizio'') on the autostrada. It's probably just meant to stop people from walking on highways. An American that encountered police (''polizia'', who drive light blue cars) at an ''area servizio'' on the highway was simply warned not to walk on the ''autostrada'' and to stay at the station until finding a ride. Once you are on the highway, don't put your thumb out, not even at the exits of service stations - then the police will warn you. Try rather asking drivers inside the station.

Especially in summertime there are a lot of tourists from [[Austria]] and [[Germany]]. The new European plates start with a letter on the left side of the plate, representing the Country. Most Austrian (A on plate) and German (D on plate) are on the way to the sea or on their way back from holidays. So if you want to go North or South, try to find Germans or Austrians (they also speak better English than the Italians).