The easiest way to identify Italy is via the license plates. Italian front and rear plates have vertical blue stripes on both the left and right side of the plate. There is only one other country with these plates- Albania, but Albania generally looks poorer than Italy. The Italian language is spoken right across Italy (as well as southern Switzerland) and it easily identifiable. Most words in Italian end in a vowel- in some instances, every word in a sentence will end in a vowel, which is rare in most other languages. Like the other Mediterranean countries, Italy has a specific southern European feel across most of the country. This includes warm weather, dry landscapes and white buildings with terracotta roofs. Almost the entire country consists of rolling hills or at least non-flat land with mountains to be found in the north. In terms of bollards, Italy often has white coloured posts with a black diagonal strip that envelops the top of the post. Many other countries have similar bollards to Italy however these other bollards don’t have the black section extending to the top of the post. Italian bollard fronts contain a red rectangle. The only other country with identical bollards to Italy is Albania. Italian towns and cities have street signs often appearing on corners and intersections. These regularly feature the word ‘VIA’ which translates from Italian to English as ‘street’. Italy also has a large percentage of Fiat cars on the roads. Signs in Italy with the words ‘Passo carrabile’ on them often have the name of the city (commune) on them at the top. The standard Mediterranean house style is popular in Italy. It features a white (or light coloured) exterior and a terracotta tiled roof. Italy has a diverse landscape. Most of the country has a dry, Mediterranean feel, but rolling hills are also common throughout the country. Directional arrows that point to Italian towns are blue with a white end. These arrows look relatively similar to the Czechia town directional arrows however they are distinct. The Italian island of Sardinia (also known as Sardegna) is rather hilly and has a similar dry feel to most of Italy. The bollards on Sardinia have a black section that extends all the way to the top of the bollard- like mainland Italy, however they feature a rectangle that is orange in colour. The Italian island of Sicily is full of twisting roads and is also hilly. Like mainland Italy and Sardinia, Sicilian bollards have the black section extending to the top of the post however something resembling more of an orange or red square shape is found in the black section.

Contrary to most European licence plates, Italian plates have blue strips on either side of the plate. Furthermore, the front plate is distinctly shorter than most European plates, which in combination with the two strips, makes it unique.

Albanian licence plates also have two blue strips, and French licence plates have a smaller strip on the right. However, neither Albanian nor French front plates are short.

Italian bollards are triangular in shape, and white with a black top. They have a red front and a white rear reflector.

Albania uses the same bollards.

One of the most common types of Italian road lines are white solid outer lines with no middle line. This is generally less common in other Mediterranean countries.


Italy has a Mediterranean landscape with a lot of agricultural fields on rolling hills, and forested mountain valleys.

Italian architecture mainly consists of pastel coloured stone houses, generally with terracotta roofs. Houses will very commonly have wooden shutters, which will typically be divided in two and open sideways.

Unlike most Mediterranean countries, Italy features a lot of round concrete poles.

Wooden poles in Italy will commonly feature a small white pole sticker.

The most common pole tops in Italy are concrete trident pole tops.

There are several possible configurations of insulators.

It is very common to find double guardrails in Italy.

Italian guardrails feature red front reflectors and are useful to distinguish Italy from Spain, which uses yellow reflectors.

It is very common for the back of Italian road signs to be black, or dark grey.

Directional signs are blue with a white arrow. All letters on these signs will be capitalised.

Directional signs in national roads (Strada Statale) are blue with a white and blue border.

Divided highways (Autostrade) have green signs with a white and green border.

Italian kilometre markers are white squares with a roman numeral on top and an arabic numeral on the bottom. The arabic numeral gives you the number of kilometres and the roman numeral gives you the number of hundred metres from the start of the road.

Italian road numbers will normally begin with the letters “SS”, “SR” or “SP”.

Beware that many road numbers appear in several different parts of the country.

Italian chevrons are white arrows on a black background.

In Southern Europe, white on black chevrons can be found in Spain, Greece and Albania.

Street signs are typically white with a thin blue border and black text.

Italian pedestrian signs have five stripes and a basic person without a belt.

These signs, featuring a “no parking”-sign with the text “passo carrabile” are commonly found in urban areas. At the top of these signs you will typically find the municipality (comune) name.


Road Lines:

You tend to find the white lines throughout the country, yet the yellow lines are a bit rarer. They seem to be located towards the south of the country, opposite of what you would expect.



License plates:

Italy has two blue bars, one on the left and one on the right of the plate. This is only seen on Italy and Albania. Its very visible, even through the blur.
