The traffic violation notice from the end of April last year arrives from Italy now.

先日、ポストを見ると「ITALY様」からお手紙が届いているとの不在通知票がありました。

I have a bad feeling about this. Another traffic ticket? Speeding? I fearfully went to the post office to pick up the letter.

I knew it was the police.

It was sent to the Italian police… I wonder if it’s the same case as usual.

Apparently, it was registered mail, and I was asked to sign for the receipt. Anyway, I followed the instructions and signed. It was the first time for me to receive such a case.

Like I paid you before…

As soon as I saw what was inside, I knew it was a bad sign, a traffic violation. But what’s wrong? If you look at the date carefully, it’s 26/4/2014 8:48.

I thought you were notified and paid for this before, what do you mean?

I believe I got a letter from the rental car company saying that the police had contacted them and that they had taken care of it and that I should pay the money and fees. Is it different from that?

So for now, I went back and read the documents sent by the rental car company last year.

First, the attached police documents.

The date is still the same day, same time. What does that mean?

It turns out that what I paid before was a rip-off fee that I never thought I’d pay!

Once again, check the cover letter from the car rental company.

うーん、どうもこれって反則金を立替えておいたではなくて、単に「警察への届け出等の手続きはしておいたからまずその手数料と通知代（郵送代）払ってね。」ってこと？

Further reading.

「警察からお前が犯したスピード違反の連絡が来たけど、うちの会社は払わないから、警察にお前の連絡先とともにその書類を送り返しておいた。きっとそのうち警察から直接連絡が来るはずだから、その時は指示に従って反則金の支払いに対応するようにね。」

That seems to be the case. So, to sum up.

「書類を日本の僕の住所に届けてくれるように警察に連絡した。あと、来た書類を送り返した。だから、その手数料50ユーロと書類返却にかかった郵送代をおまえのクレジットカードから引いとくわ。よろしく。あと、警察から多分そのうち連絡くるから、そのときはしっかり指示に従って反則金払っとけよ。」

That’s what you mean! And finally, almost 10 months later, I get a call from the local police. That’s what you mean! What’s with that inefficiency!

フランスやスペインではそんな手数料はなく、警察からダイレクトに手紙がくる仕組みなのに…。また、以前イギリスで違反した時は、レンタカー会社がその反則金を立替てくれて、まあ若干手数料は取られたけれどこんなにはぼったくられなかったです。

The car rental company should pay for it like in England and charge the cost and fees…. That’s Italy for you….

I have no choice but to pay, and even then, it’s expensive!

I wanted to complain, but there was nothing I could do, so I decided to pay the police anyway.

So, I checked the notice again. Fortunately, it seems that Italy also supports payment via website.

I suppressed the feeling that I wanted to complain about the Japanese police when even Italy could handle the Internet, and started the transfer procedure.

I went to the website that was written on the document. It seems to be available in multiple languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish and German.

適当に進むと、ログイン画面が現れるので、書類に書かれていたIDとパスワードを入力。

You will be taken to a screen that looks like this, where you will enter the Fine #, Plate, and the date of the violation in the date section at the bottom, as written on the paperwork from the police.

Then you will be taken to a page with details about the violation fee.

えっ、102.74ユーロ…、高い。過去最高ではないか。しかも、もっと早く連絡くれれば円安になる前のレートで支払えたのにー。

Anyway, was it such a great violation? So I checked again how much I exceeded.

Apparently, it was 10km over the limit…

92km on a normal road should be a very normal speed on normal European roads, and Italy should have been fine with 90km on normal roads.

But apparently, this was a road with an 80km limit. I must have missed that speed sign for sure, I’m shocked.

Credit card payment successfully completed

Well, a violation is a violation, so I reluctantly went through the payment process. This was no problem at all. Unlike Spain, there is an English version, so it was easy to do.

I also received a successful payment email. This is also a multi-language version.

以上にて、ようやく負の遺産を精算。大きな授業料となりましたが、またヨーロッパドライブのレベルが上ったと思います。