Italy

Italy
Information
Language:	Italian
Capital:	Rome
Population:	59.619.000
Currency:	Euro
Hitchability:
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Italy is a member state of the European Union as well as the Schengen Agreement, and so are France, Austria and Slovenia, but Switzerland is not. Border crossing will be no problem at all. In Italy hitchhiking is a bit less common than in France or Germany, but it's very well possible.

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

Roads are often not laid out for bicyclists and pedestrians, which makes it harder to walk towards and to find good spots. Always make sure to stay safe and do some research before heading out to hitch.

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. When pitching a tent in the wild, make very sure to stay out of sight.

Hitchhiking (Il)legal? - 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.

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 drivers encounter the no autostop sign; once you have passage onto the autostrada it is fairly simple to skip from one service area to the next until you arrive at your destination. It's less likely that you will encounter problems if you're not Italian -- and, if you speak Italian, don't reveal this to police (or the armed forces carabinieri).

• See also Hitchhiking in Italy, an article on Digihitch by Hikecrazy

Hitching in Italy

Region	City
Südtirol Sardegna	Bologna, Bergamo Florence Genova Milano Napoli Padova Rome Sabaudia Torino, Trento Venice

Italy towards Austria

Take the Highway A23 (in the eastern part of Italy) to Austria (don't try to hitchhike through Switzerland, it's very difficult). Follow the 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. You can also try to hitch A22 to Bozen, Innsbruck over the Brennero. But it's quite difficult not within the holidays to find a hitch from A4 to the A22. Also don't go over Milano, it's really difficult to get out of the ring, because everybody goes into Milano but nobody who wants to get out stops there at are service areas.

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).