Parkink in Radda in Chianti, Tuscany

When travelling in an other country it’s always useful to know as much as possible how the locals move around, park the car, go shopping….

PARKING DISC

Parking Disc Sign

When driving around in Italy you’ll find more and more of these Parking signs. What do they mean ?

ARRIVAL:Upon arrival on a parking lot requiring to display a parking disc you are supposed to set the parking disc and put it on display behind the front windshield (front windscreen). The disc has a thumb wheel (knurling wheel) at the upper side that makes the clock face turn around its center point allowing to show different clock times.

Parking disc Italy

The standard parking clock can show full  24 hours in a round with additional marks for each half hour. The mark to choose is the time rounded up from the actual arrival time: arriving at 10:00:01 do set the clock to 10:00 and arriving at 10:29:59 do set the clock to 10:30 as well. In law speak “parking is allowed when the vehicle shows a parking disc that is easily readable from the outside and whose clockhand points to the mark of the half hour that follows the time of arrival”.

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DEPARTURE:The last departure time is calculated from the shown arrival time (the next half hour) on the parking disc plus the indicated maximum parking time. If the parking disc was set to 10:30 and the parking sign indicated a 1 hour maximum parking time then free parking will end at 11:30.