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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]] and [[Austria]], but [[Switzerland]] and [[Slovenia]] are not. Border crossing will be no problem at all.

Roads are often not laid out for bicyclists and pedestrians, which makes it harder to walk towards and to find good spots.

Hitchhiking on the ''autostrada'' is not legal (there are big signs saying ''no autostop'' at all highway entries), but it is unclear whether this extends to gas stations on the autostrada. It's probably just meant to stop people from walking on highways.

If you're on a gas station it's a good idea to stay on friendly terms with the staff. When starting, it's probably a good idea to find a spot before people encounter that sign. It's less likely that you will encounter problems if you're not Italian.

<!-- Guaka doesn't think so: Hitchhiking by standing beside the road putting your thumb out is forbidden in there. -->

* [[Bergamo]]

* [[Florence]]

* [[Venice]]

Take the Highway [[A23 (Italy)|A23]] (in the eastern part of Italy) to [[Austria]] (don't try to hitchhike through [[Switzerland]], it's very difficult). Follow the [[A23 (Italy)|A23]] to [[Villach]] and [[Salzburg]] to get through the Alps very easy. On that way, you will also find a lot of people heading to [[Hungary]], [[Slovakia]] and [[Slovenia]].

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).

[[Category:Europe]]

[[Category:Italy]]