Driving in italy - stopped by police.

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Fri 18 Jul 2014 19:45
Driving in italy - stopped by police. - AlexT

I was with my father and mother in my dad's company car (bulgarian plates), when we got stopped by police exiting the motorway toll station (they have a lot of those). We stayed there for quite a while since we didn't know what we were doing with all the euro coins, and they probably thought this as suspicious.

Took a quick look at my dad's id and license, asked for the car's paperwork and the passenger's IDs (me & my mom). My dad got quite irritated by this, and the cop was very agitated, (probably high on thinking he cought someone without the proper paperwork). Policeman went to the car and started checking the papers while my dad went to the car. The police didn't speak a word of english, and finally after our contact in italy came to translate (he was in another car in front of us) the policeman said that all the papers are in order and we can go. Didn't utter anything resembling "sorry".

Our contact says this is a thing in italy, has anything like this happened to you before ? Is it normal to check passenger ID's?

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Fri 18 Jul 2014 20:05
Driving in italy - stopped by police. - FP

Various people claim on internet forums that it's a legal requirement to carry ID at all times in Italy; for a foreign visitor that means a passport.

I get the impression that continental police rarely make random stops, so you may have been unlucky; as you say, your faffing around with lots of euro coins may have inspired it.

It is of course totally pointless to get irritated and even worse actually to show it. The police just dig their heels in.

As for an apology, what were you thinking? :-)

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Sat 19 Jul 2014 00:19
Driving in italy - stopped by police. - focussed

I have driven in Italy but not recently so cannot comment on this particular incident, but it sounds as if your dad didn't pass the "attitude test".

The police and gendarmerie in France certainly do make random stops, called a controle looking mainly for drunken and drugged drivers, drugs are becoming a big problem over here, drunks have always been a problem. The French dibble are usually formal and polite don't forget to say Bonjour Monsieur etc and above all don't argue-"verbalising" an officer is an offence.

And of course they will look through all your papers, licence, id , car registration, insurance, have you got a hi-viz gilet within reach etc to try to find something to nick you on

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Sat 19 Jul 2014 17:23
Driving in italy - stopped by police. - AlexT

Thing is, my dad considered it an insult to be stopped without doing anything wrong, and asked for passenger's id's without what he considered is due cause (we were only slow in paying the extortionate sum at the motorway exit, being foreign and all). Voices were raised and my dad said you sould have seen his face when the 'all ok' came trough the radio, he was surprised our paperwork was not fake. Maybe he believed the car to be stolen...

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Thu 24 Jul 2014 13:22
Driving in italy - stopped by police. - concrete

Hello Alex, my guess is the stop was because of the Bulgarian plates on the car. Italy is a prime spot for people traficking and the Eastern Europeans are percieved as the villains. However, it is just like being stopped anywhere by the police, if you have your correct documents etc etc you have nothing to fear and a check only takes minutes. All part of lifes' rich pattern! Cheers Concrete

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