"Notice of Payment Before the Notification" - UPDATED

Apparently Peter never paid the fine and haven't heard anything more from the Italian authorities so I guess we're still waiting for the "notification"...

Did I tell you about all the trouble with the traffic police we had on our European travels last summer? We were able to add a speeding ticket and a fine for driving in a bus lane to our travel memories. And our rental car was towed.

The speeding ticket was pretty straightforward, our fault, no issue there. The car being towed, that deserve a separate post. That brings us to the fine for driving in a bus lane.

It happened in Florence (the towing was also in Italy by the way) in early June - we spent a long weekend in Tuscany with my parents. I remember that we were a bit lost in a roundabout around a station (can't remember the name, probably Santa Maria or something equally holy) and took two laps before we found the entrance to the parking garage underneath the station. We don't remember seeing any signs for bus lanes and we were just one of many cars in the the roundabout. When we checked the location on GoogleMaps afterwards there were mainly cars on the streets on the satellite photo. Anyway, we didn't think much about it when we were there; it was when we had been home for a few months and suddenly received a fine for 90 euros that we looked it up.

I have to say that the Italians are very organised when it comes to collecting fines. They are not really known for organisation, are they? But included with the letter was instructions for how to log onto a website, which had all details of the "case". And the information was in English even! On the other hand there is a thin line between organised and bureucratic...

As we wanted to contest the fine Peter thought it would be good to discuss it with someone in person. And surprisingly there was an English-speaking desk to call! The guy was really helpful and said he would e-mail Peter information on how to appeal.

So far so good.

Then we read the e-mail.

Please find attached all the necessary documentation to make an appeal to the Prefect of Florence. You'll find 3 files [attached]: "how to make an appeal", an appeal form in Italian and a English form for a better comprehension. You have to send the Italian appeal in a registered letter ONLY AFTER you receive the official notification, since the letter that you have received is only a "notice of payment before the notification". This notification will arrive approximately 2 months after the first letter. You need to wait for this letter, because if you appeal before this particular letter the Prefect of Florence will reject it. You have to enclose in the appeal all the documentation that can help you regarding this infraction (hotel or car rental receipt).

Okay, so we had not actually received the fine. Only the NOTICE of the fine. We have to wait for the official NOTIFICATION. We laughed and said that I guess we will just wait for that then.

But then we read the last sentence of the e-mail.

Please be aware that if the Prefect denies your appeal, the fine will be doubled.

Okay, so we can wait x number of months, do tons of paper work and then risk having to pay 180 euros instead??!! No, thank you! So we decided to just pay the stupid thing, even if we had only received the "notice of payment before the notification".