Palermo, Italy · Limited traffic zone
Partly in force in Palermo right nowTuesday, 13 October 2026 at 11:04 · Europe/Rome
Lifts Tuesday, 13 October 2026 at 20:00 local time.
AMAT states that no restriction is active on Sundays and public holidays ("Non saranno attive limitazioni nei giorni di domenica e festivi"). We have found no official, dated and reusable list of the public holidays currently in force in Italy — the same gap the Florence, Rome, Milan, Modena and Genoa records record — so we cannot apply that exclusion. On an Italian public holiday falling Monday to Friday this page will say the daytime ZTL is in force when the operator says it is not. The error only ever runs that way. Note that the Sunday exclusion is already expressed in the rules below, because Sunday carries no daytime window at all; what the missing calendar costs us is only the weekday holidays. Palermo adds a second, larger reason not to trust a calendar here even if we had one: the city suspends the ZTL individually for the Festino di Santa Rosalia on 14–15 July, for Holy Week, at Christmas and for major concerts, each by its own dated notice rather than by a standing rule, and none of those is a public holiday in the national sense.
Saturday and Sunday have no daytime restriction in either season, and that is the publisher's own table rather than an inference: the city's winter notice lists Saturday with only its two night pieces and Sunday with only 00:00–06:00. A Saturday afternoon in the centre of Palermo is open. A Saturday night is not.
⚠️ Sunday morning before 06:00 is restricted even though Sunday is otherwise free, because it is the tail of Saturday night. The rules above carry it as the overnight part of the Saturday window, and the city writes it on its own line as "domenica: dalle ore 00.00 alle ore 6.00". A driver leaving a Saturday night out at 03:00 on Sunday is inside the night ZTL.
The seasonal switch is the thing to check if you are reading this near a boundary. 1 May and 1 November change the Friday and Saturday evening start by three hours, in opposite directions, and the change is announced each year by the Comando della Polizia Municipale in a dated notice. The two seasons are carried as month exceptions above, so the answer is right on either side — but the record's stale_after is set to the November switch on purpose, so that the next reading of this page happens at the moment the clock actually moves.
The pass-consumption deadlines are a separate clock from the zone's, and they are not symmetrical: a daytime entry must be regularised by 24:00 the same day, a night entry by 06:00 the following morning, and a pass for the Saturday-night-into-Sunday stretch may only be activated after 06:00 on the Saturday. Being inside the hours with the wrong pass state is the same outcome as having no pass.
Palermo publishes the two regimes under two names — ZTL diurna and ZTL notturna — and they have separate instruments: the night one was reactivated by ordinanza dirigenziale n. 1272 of 4 November 2021. We hold them as one record and one zone because the publisher does: that 2021 order itself says the night ZTL runs on the days and hours laid down by the same Disciplinare Tecnico, and the operator's current page describes one area with two time regimes rather than two areas. If a future cycle finds a separately published night perimeter, this decision is the one to revisit.
One thing we looked for and did not find, stated rather than guessed: there is no published exemption for a visitor by virtue of staying in the zone. The operator says businesses inside the ZTL — hotels among them named explicitly — may register customers' vehicles for temporary passes and refers the detail to the Disciplinare Tecnico, and that document is a scan we cannot read. So we do not tell a driver that a hotel booking opens the gate, the way the Genoa record can; the gap is in what the publisher has made readable, not in the search.
Operating times only, read from the source below. It does not check your vehicle.
Palermo closes its historic centre to unauthorised vehicles on two different clocks over the same ground, and a visitor driving a rental car is caught by both. The zone runs from Piazza Giulio Cesare to Via Cavour and from Porta Nuova to Porta Felice — what the city's traffic plan calls ZTL 1 — and the streets that form the perimeter itself stay freely drivable, as does the run to the Ospedale dei Bambini.
The daytime ZTL is Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 20:00, all year. The night ZTL then takes the same area on Friday and Saturday nights only, and it moves with the season: from 1 May to 31 October it starts at 20:00 and runs to 06:00 the next morning, and from 1 November to 30 April it starts at 23:00 and runs to 06:00.
Nothing runs in the daytime on Sunday or a public holiday — but a Sunday morning before 06:00 is still the tail of Saturday night.
Unlike Genoa or Siena, there is a day ticket and it is sold to anyone: a visitor buys a daily pass for €5.00 for a petrol car from Euro 3 up or a diesel from Euro 4 up, €2.50 for a petrol/electric, petrol/methane or petrol/LPG hybrid, and pays nothing at all for a fully electric car or with a disabled badge. That is the whole of what most travellers need — but there are two catches worth knowing before you drive.
The pass must be activated BEFORE you enter, not afterwards, and an older car cannot buy its way in at any price: a petrol car below Euro 3 or a diesel below Euro 4 is not admitted on a daily pass at all, only on a resident's permit.
Mopeds and motorcycles may enter. ⚠️ Palermo publishes no map or dataset of the boundary, and the governing rulebook is a scan we cannot read — the perimeter here is the operator's own description, and the streets between the four named corners are not published anywhere we could find.
AMAT Palermo S.p.A. — "La ZTL, tempi e perimetro", the in-house company that operates the ZTL Centrale for the Comune di Palermo and answers for it at [email protected]. The page carries the perimeter, both clocks, the access categories and the whole tariff ladder in one place, and it is the only current statement of all four
Comune di Palermo — service record "Richiedere permesso di accesso ad area ZTL", the "Quanto costa" section, which sets the day-pass tariff the city itself charges; read together with AMAT's tariff ladder for the monthly, six-monthly and annual rates and for the coach rate
Two clocks over one area, and they are published as two schemes with two names. The ZTL diurna — the daytime one — runs Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 20:00, every week of the year.
The ZTL notturna then takes the same ground on Friday and Saturday nights only, and its start time moves with the season while its end never does: from 1 May to 31 October it runs from 20:00 to 06:00 the following morning, and from 1 November to 30 April from 23:00 to 06:00.
Read as calendar days, that makes a summer Friday one unbroken restriction from 08:00 right through to 06:00 on Saturday, and it is why the city's own summer notice writes Friday as "dalle ore 8 alle 24" and then continues the same night on the Saturday line.
Saturday itself has no daytime ZTL in either season — only the two night pieces, the tail of Friday night until 06:00 and the start of Saturday night in the evening.
Sunday has no daytime ZTL either, and the operator says in as many words that no restriction is active on Sundays and public holidays — but the hours from midnight to 06:00 on a Sunday are the tail of Saturday night and are restricted, which the city's own table sets out line by line. ⚠️ Whether the pass you bought still counts is a second clock again, and it is not the same one.
For a daytime entry the day pass must be consumed by 24:00 on the day of the transit; for a night entry, by 06:00 the following morning. And a pass for the Sunday-morning stretch — from 20:00 on Saturday in summer or 23:00 in winter through to 06:00 — may only be activated after 06:00 on the Saturday. In every case the pass has to be activated before you drive in, never after.
AMAT Palermo S.p.A. — "La ZTL, tempi e perimetro": the single current sentence that carries both clocks and both seasons, read together with the Comune di Palermo's own service record and its seasonal notices, all cited separately below
The historic centre between four named corners: from Piazza Giulio Cesare — the square in front of the Stazione Centrale — to Via Cavour in the north, and from Porta Nuova beside the Palazzo dei Normanni across to Porta Felice on the sea.
The operator identifies it with the zone the Piano Generale del Traffico Urbano numbers ZTL 1, and that box contains the whole of what a visitor comes for: the Quattro Canti, the Cattedrale, the Teatro Massimo, Ballarò, the Vucciria and the Kalsa. Two things inside that description matter as much as the outline.
The streets that make up the perimeter itself are freely drivable — being on the boundary is not being inside it — and there is free access to the Ospedale dei Bambini. ⚠️ Between those four corners the city publishes no street-by-street perimeter that is current.
The one detailed list we found is from 2017: a notice naming five camera gates (Via Vittorio Emanuele at Piazza Santo Spirito/Porta Felice, Via Roma at Piazza Giulio Cesare, Via Porto Salvo near Via Vittorio Emanuele, Piazza Verdi at Via Volturno behind the Teatro Massimo, and Via Gagini after the entrance from Piazza Colonna) and nineteen freely drivable perimeter roads.
We do not restate that list as current and it is not the basis of this record, because the scheme has moved twice since: the ZTL on Via Roma, Via Squarcialupo and Via Castello was reactivated on 24 January 2023, the Via Roma axis again on 5 July 2023, and a dirigenziale order suspended the daytime ZTL on Via Roma in both directions from 29 August 2025 before ordinanza n.
1508 of 16 October 2025 revoked that suspension and brought it back from 20 October 2025. A gate list that predates three changes to the gates is history, not a boundary.
AMAT Palermo S.p.A. — "La ZTL, tempi e perimetro": the operator's current description of the extent, the ZTL 1 designation from the Piano Generale del Traffico, the freely drivable perimeter and the hospital access
The authority's own map: Comune di Palermo — Portale Open Data, opendata.comune.palermo.it
Euro 3 is the floor for a petrol car that wants to buy its way in. The operator's list of who may enter puts it twice: a non-resident with a work, study or health reason may enter only with a less polluting vehicle, defined as "Da Euro 4 a Euro 6 e Benzina Euro 3", and every other citizen may enter only on a daily pass and only with a vehicle of that same cleaner set.
So for petrol the threshold is Euro 3 and up, and a petrol car at Euro 0, 1 or 2 has no route in at all except as a resident's — no pass is sold to it. Above that floor the emission class no longer decides entry, only price: the day pass costs €5.00 anywhere from Euro 3 to Euro 6. Two petrol-adjacent cases sit outside the ladder entirely.
A petrol/electric, petrol/methane or petrol/LPG hybrid may enter regardless of Euro class and regardless of where its owner lives, at €2.50 a day. A fully electric car may do the same and pays nothing — its pass is always free, and the portal lists "Titolari di veicoli a Trazione elettrica" among the Lista Bianca categories that hold a free permit.
AMAT Palermo S.p.A. — "La ZTL, tempi e perimetro", the access list: the definition of a less polluting vehicle, the day-pass condition attached to it, and the free electric pass; read with the ZTL portal's Lista Bianca categories
Euro 4 is the floor for a diesel, one step stricter than the petrol one, and the publisher writes the two thresholds into the same phrase: a less polluting vehicle is one "Da Euro 4 a Euro 6 e Benzina Euro 3".
A diesel at Euro 3 or below is therefore outside every route a visitor has — it cannot buy a daily pass, and the tariff table confirms it from the other end by pricing the day pass for petrol "da Euro 3 a Euro 6" and for diesel "da Euro 4 a Euro 6".
That asymmetry between the fuels is deliberate and it is the single fact most likely to catch a driver out, because a Euro 3 car is admitted or refused depending on what it burns. From Euro 4 upwards a diesel is treated exactly like a petrol car of the same standing: €5.00 for the day, no further distinction by class.
The one thing an old diesel can still do is stay on the perimeter streets, which are freely drivable, and reach the Ospedale dei Bambini.
Comune di Palermo — service record "Richiedere permesso di accesso ad area ZTL", the city's own page for the service, which carries the day-pass tariff with the two fuels' Euro bands written out separately
Neither the city nor the operator states a current figure, and we will not carry one forward. The only amounts Palermo has ever published for this zone sit on an AMAT notice from 2017 that announced the pre-exercise phase of the camera system under ordinanza dirigenziale n. 485 of 31 March 2017: €164.00 for driving in unauthorised with a petrol Euro 0/1/2 or a diesel Euro 0/1/2/3 under art.
7 commi 1 lett. b) and 13-bis of the Codice della Strada, €81.00 for the same offence in a petrol Euro 3 or better or a diesel Euro 4 or better under art. 7 commi 9 and 14, and €41.00 for parking inside during ZTL hours under art.
158. Those three figures are nine years old and they are Codice della Strada amounts, which art. 195 of that code has recalculated every two years since — the same reason Genoa's record carries no number and Modena's €168–679 could not be copied across.
What is stable and worth knowing is the structure rather than the sum: the offence is a national one under the Codice della Strada, not a municipal fee, the two bands are set by how dirty the car is as well as by the entry itself, and parking inside during the hours is a separate offence from driving in.
The pass rules add one more: a transit made in the fifteen days after an annual or six-month pass expires is cleared if the pass is renewed promptly, and after those fifteen days unregularised transits are sanctioned under the Disciplinare Tecnico in force. We hold no figure for 2026 and do not estimate one.
AMAT Palermo S.p.A. — "La ZTL, tempi e perimetro": the pass ladder, the sale points, the SMS activation with the number and the message format, the categories, and the warning that the daily pass must be activated before entry; read together with the Comune's service record for the consumption deadlines and the ZTL portal for the Lista Bianca and the CUDE route
AMAT Palermo S.p.A. — "La ZTL, tempi e perimetro". The operator's own standing page and the single most complete current statement of this scheme: the extent between the four corners and the ZTL 1 designation, both clocks with both seasons, the freely drivable perimeter and the hospital access, the full list of who may enter, the whole tariff ladder from daily to annual, the sale points, the SMS activation, and the instruction that a daily pass must be activated before entry. AMAT is the in-house company of the Comune di Palermo that operates the ZTL Centrale and answers for it at [email protected] — the sixth time in this corpus that an Italian city's ZTL facts live on its operator's site rather than its own, after Lucca, Verona, Pisa, Milan and Genoa
Comune di Palermo — service record "Richiedere permesso di accesso ad area ZTL", the city's own page for the service, last updated 4 March 2025. The authority's own statement rather than the operator's: the day-pass tariff with each fuel's Euro band written out separately, the seasonal night hours set out as calendar-day segments, the pass-consumption deadlines for day and night, the free access for electric cars and for drivers with limited or impaired mobility, and the Ufficio Traffico e Mobilità Urbana as the responsible office. It is also the page that names the two regimes AREA ZTL DIURNA and AREA ZTL NOTTURNA in the city's own words
Comune di Palermo, Comando della Polizia Municipale — "ZTL. Dal 2 maggio orario estivo", the dated notice that brings the summer clock into force, published 24 April 2025. The only place the summer timetable is set out day by day as calendar days rather than as overnight spans, and the source of the fact that a summer Friday is one unbroken restriction from 08:00 to 24:00 and onward into Saturday morning
Comune di Palermo, Comando della Polizia Municipale — "ZTL. Dall'1 novembre in vigore orario invernale", the dated notice that brings the winter clock into force, published 28 October 2024. The matching table for the other season, and the clearest statement anywhere that Saturday carries no daytime ZTL: it lists Saturday with only its two night pieces
Comune di Palermo / SISPI S.p.A. — the ZTL service portal at ztl.comune.palermo.it, the platform through which every pass is issued. The page that names the governing instrument by number: the "Disciplinare Tecnico della Zona a Traffico Limitato Centrale" approved by deliberazione di Giunta Comunale n. 169 of 26 August 2022, its May 2024 modification, and the ordinance that reactivated the night ZTL, n. 1272 of 4 November 2021. It also carries the current state of the Via Roma stretch — ordinanza n. 1508 of 16 October 2025 revoking the temporary suspension ordered by n. 1236 of 29 August 2025, effective 20 October 2025 — and the non-resident CUDE route to free access
AMAT Palermo S.p.A. — "Disciplinare Tecnico ZTL", the governing rulebook itself as the operator publishes it: the May 2024 text of the Disciplinare approved by deliberazione di G.C. n. 169 of 26 August 2022, posted 20 March 2025. This is the instrument that sets the categories, the tariffs, the temporary passes for customers of businesses inside the zone and the sanction regime for unregularised transits. It is cited here as the authority the other sources point to, and it is the one document in this record that we could not read
AMAT Palermo S.p.A. — "Al via il pre-esercizio del controllo elettronico varchi ZTL", the 2017 notice that started the camera system under ordinanza dirigenziale n. 485 of 31 March 2017 and the Disciplinare then in force, deliberazione di Giunta Comunale n. 58/2017. HISTORICAL, and cited for one purpose only: it is the sole place Palermo has ever published penalty figures for this zone, and the record's penalty field explains from it why no figure is carried. Its access rules are word-for-word the ones still on the operator's current page, which is worth knowing — but its gate list, its perimeter list and its Disciplinare reference are all superseded and are not used
Comune di Palermo / SISPI S.p.A. — the ZTL portal's service page, which lists the Lista Bianca categories that hold a free pass: people with limited or impaired mobility, car-sharing operators, taxis and hire cars with driver up to nine seats, fully electric vehicles, and vehicles of historic interest under art. 60 of the Codice della Strada. It also carries the fifteen-day grace period after an annual or six-month pass expires, and the statement that transits left unregularised beyond it are sanctioned under the Disciplinare Tecnico in force
Next scheduled re-check: 2026-11-01.