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My mate and I have been doing a bit of hitching and Italy and it really isn't worth it. Our first try it took us two hours to get to the highway, and when we finally got there the police drove by and they escorted us off the highway. The second time was another trek to the highway - luckily we got picked up by two older Italians who dropped us off at a petrol station, and from there we were able to find a couple who took us to Pescara. Although that hitch was successful, it is completely outweighed by our third try: we walked for about two and a half hours in the hot sun trying to find a wide enough shoulder on the highway (we were going off google satellite). When we finally found a spot that wasn't that safe but just had to go with it, we got asked by the police within ten minutes of us being there to leave (they were angry but didn't fine us).
In conclusion, we aren't going to try hitching in Italy again. The autostradas just aren't hitch friendly and trains are pretty affordable anyway. it might be easier if you're an Italian or if you're going from one major city to another, but I don't recommend traveling all of Italy with just your thumb.
== Hitchhike Munich-Rome + Advises ==
A friend of mine and me and 2 other friends hitch hiked down from Munich to Rome in two teams few days ago.
We all made it in roughly 24 hours (with lots of luck in the evening), but it was really not easy.
People in italy don't seem to like the idea of hitch hiking ("mi dispiace", "sono contro", "no passeggero", "siamo pieno" (even though theyre not) etc.). Knowing Italian language helps big time, otherwise it's even worse.
We hitchhiked most of the way on highways (even though not allowed) and got caught 3 times by the police, telling us to leave the gas station with a back door 2 times (which costs tons of time)
Try to stay really really low on profile, which means hide your bags, don't talk to people directly at the gas station when there's people working there, simply walk into food areas whenever police shows up or a police car is parked anywhere.
It's possible, but definately though terrain.
Good luck!
== Blackriding and cheap fares in Italy if hitchhiking fails ==
I have spent like a few months in Italy working as a volunteer, so I rarely had any money to travel properly. I was arriving from Budapest to Firenze in a day or so, then had a day making my best efforts there but nobody picked me up. ''[In the last few years I heard rumours about that hitchhiking is getting harder and harder in Italy due to some well set reasons (European migrant crisis, police regulation etc.).]'' After this really bad day in the evening I went back to the trainstation in Firenze and took a train instantly to Rome and spent the whole journey walking up and down on the train or charging my devices on the toilet so I got there for free. After this I have done the same from Padova to Roma (>200 minutes) too and then repeated these journeys multiple times even between other cities. If you choose this method you are advised to take these high-speed trains from intermediate stations on Friday or Sunday nights (trains are crowded so these periods are the best), so you can avoid meeting the conductors. If you need to get to a smaller station you can buy ticket for only a part of your the journey as the conductors are mostly busy with the new passengers and they won't ask for your tickets again and again.
With these methods I could cover thousands of kilometers with almost no costs, as hitchhiking is really hard at motorways in off-season.
Good luck guys!
--[[User:ErikStoppol|ErikStoppol]] ([[User talk:ErikStoppol|talk]]) 17:48, 8 October 2017 (UTC)
P.S.: I still highly recommend '''hitchhiking outside motorways between smaller cities''' but on motorways mostly only foreigners pick up the hitchhikers.
== Hitchhiking Italy ==
I would conclude the efforts of hitchhiking in Italy by the little but according phrase.
If I was to die and reincarnate as a slime in Uruguay I would have gotten home sooner than from Milano.
We ve switched between multiple gass station on the local roads and the highway. We waited for three days untill we eventually had to give up because we were running out of time.
We had a sign saying to Verona. Big Teddy bear and we are a young student couple looking completly harmless. It took us two days to get from Barcelona to Milano and we had no problems whatsoever.
Most of the people passing by in Miláno was frauning on us... dont ever try to go by this stinking city.
