Italy: 1 scheme to know about before you drive in.
Siena has one driving restriction on our books: the Zona a Traffico Limitato del Centro Storico (limited traffic zone). What is a limited traffic zone?
Sources last read on 2026-09-21, from the authorities' own pages. The next scheduled check is 2026-12-20.
Siena's walled historic centre is closed to unauthorised traffic around the clock, every day of the year, and the gates are cameras.
The permit rulebook in force, approved by the Giunta Comunale on 19 May 2026, says the ZTL "ha validità tutti i giorni nell'orario 0/24" and that entry, driving and parking are all forbidden to vehicles that are not authorised — so nothing here turns on the hour you arrive, only on whether your plate is on a list.
The zone is split into six sectors with their own entrances and exits (Ovile, Romana, Tufi, Fontebranda, San Marco, Camollia), and inside it sit two stricter areas: the "Zona Y storica", which is mostly pedestrian and takes in Il Campo and Banchi di Sopra, and the "Zona A". In both of those, parking is banned permanently and only the vehicles named in their own orders may drive through at all.
There is no ticket on sale at the gate to a visitor who simply wants to look at the city.
What a visitor gets instead is an accommodation route: a hotel, guesthouse or B&B inside the zone registers your plate itself, free of charge, at most twice a day, and that authorises you to drive the shortest way to its door and to stop for luggage for no more than 45 minutes at a time — but explicitly not through the Zona Y storica streets, which are listed one by one.
A private individual can otherwise be issued a short permit with a stated reason: 30 minutes free, capped at four a month per vehicle, an hour for €5, a day for €10, and €30 more on top for any transit in the Zona Y storica.