"Autostrada" redirects here. For roads called "Autostrada" in other countries, see Roads and expressways in Romania, Roads and expressways in Poland

The Autostrada is the Italian national system of motorways. The total length of the system is about 6,400 km. In North and Central Italy this is mainly as tollways, with the biggest portion in concession to the Atlantia group which operates some 3,408 km. Other operators include ASTM and ATP in the north-west, Serenissima and Autovie Venete in the north-east, SALT and Autocisa in the center, all under the control of the state-owned ANAS.

History[link]

A4 Turin - Trieste

Italy was the first country in the world to start building motorways, i.e., fast roads, reserved for motor vehicles. The "Milano-Laghi" motorway (connecting Milan to Varese) was, in fact, devised by Piero Puricelli, a civil engineer and entrepreneur. He received the first authorizations to build a "public utility" fast road in 1921, and completed the construction (one lane each direction) between 1924 and 1926. By the end of the 1920s, over 4,000 kilometers of multi-lane motorways were constructed throughout Italy, linking cities and rural towns. The motorways were touted by Benito Mussolini in 1930, as one of the great achievements of his regime and the proof of its commitment to progress and modernization. Actually, the original idea for multi-lane motorways had been thought of before Mussolini laid claim to it. It is believed that the US government had already conceived the idea of an Interstate Highway System to supplant the previous US roads network when American officials visited the Italian motorways in the late 1930s.

Speed[link]

Italy's autostrade have a standard speed limit of 130 km/h (81 mph) for cars. Limits for other vehicles (or during foul weather and/or low visibility) are lower. Legal provisions allow operators to set the limit to 150 km/h (93 mph) on their concessions on a voluntary basis if these conditions are met: three lanes in each direction and a working SICVE, or Safety Tutor, speed-camera system.

List of current motorways[link]

Map of the Italian motorways

• A1 Milan - Naples (known as "Autostrada del Sole", Motorway of the Sun, or "AutoSole" for short)
• (A2 designation has been retired - formerly Rome - Naples, now part of A1)
• A3 Naples - Salerno - Reggio Calabria
• A4 Turin - Trieste (the Brescia-Venice segment known as "Serenissima", The Most Serene, for the name of the ancient Venetian republic)
• A5 Turin - Aosta - Monte Bianco (connecting to France through Mont Blanc Tunnel; known as "Autostrada della Valle d'Aosta", Motorway of Aosta Valley)
• A6 Turin - Savona (known as "Verdemare", The Seagreen)
• A7 Milan - Genoa (known as "Serravalle")
• A8 Varese - Milan (known as "Autostrada dei Laghi", Motorway of the Lakes, or "AutoLaghi" for short)
• A9 Lainate - Como - Chiasso (connecting to Switzerland; part of "Autostrada dei Laghi")
• A10 Genoa - Ventimiglia (connecting to France; known as "Autostrada dei Fiori", Motorway of the Flowers)
• A11 Florence - Pisa Nord (known as "Firenze-Mare", Florence-Sea)
• A12 Genoa - Rosignano Marittimo / Civitavecchia - Rome (known as "Autostrada Azzurra", Blue Motorway), composed of two unconnected parts; the track between Rosignano and Civitavecchia is served by Strada Statale 1 "via Aurelia"
• A13 Padova - Bologna
• A14 Bologna - Taranto (known as "Autostrada Adriatica", Adriatic Motorway)
• A15 Parma - La Spezia (known as "Autocamionale della Cisa", Motor-and-truckway of the Cisa Pass)
• A16 Naples - Canosa (known as "Autostrada dei Due Mari", Motorway of the Two Seas)
• (A17 designation has been retired)
• A18 Messina - Catania / Syracuse - Rosolini
• A19 Palermo - Catania
• A20 Messina - Palermo
• A21 Turin - Piacenza - Brescia (known as "Autostrada dei Vini", Motorway of the Wines)
• A22 Modena - Brennero (connecting to Austria; known as "Autostrada del Brennero" or "AutoBrennero" for short)
• A23 Palmanova - Tarvisio (connecting to Austria; known as "Autostrada Alpe-Adria", Motorway of Alps-Adria)
• A24 Rome - L'Aquila - Teramo (known as "Autostrada dei Parchi", Motorway of the Parks)
• A25 Pescara - Torano
• A26 Genoa (Voltri) - Gravellona Toce (known as "Autostrada dei Trafori", Motorway of the Tunnels)
• A27 Venice - Belluno (known as "Autostrada d'Alemagna", Motorway of Germany)
• A28 Conegliano - Portogruaro
• A29 Palermo - Mazara del Vallo/Trapani (known as "Autostrada del Sale", Motorway of salt)
• A30 Caserta - Salerno
• A31 Piovene Rocchette - Vicenza (known as "Autostrada della Val d'Astico", Motorway of Astico Valley)
• A32 Turin - Bardonecchia (connecting to France via Fréjus Road Tunnel; known as "Autostrada del Frejus", Motorway of the Frejus)
• A33 Asti - Cuneo (under construction, but partly opened)
• A53 Raccordo Bereguardo-Pavia (connection between Pavia and motorway A7)
• A91 Roma - Fiumicino Aeroporto

Until 1990, the designation A1 only referred to the Milan-Rome segment of the current A1, the Rome-Naples segment was known as A2. After a direct connection was built bypassing Rome, the designation A2 was retired and now the A1 designation refers to the whole route. The leftover connections to the "Grande Raccordo Anulare" (Great Ring Road, around Rome) were designated as raccordi (see later). Until 1973, the designation A17 referred to the current A16, and the segment Canosa-Bari of the current A14.

[edit] List of tangenziali (bypass roads around big cities)

This is a list of tangenziali classified as autostrada.

• A50 Tangenziale Ovest di Milano (west bypass road, Milan)
• A51 Tangenziale Est di Milano (east bypass road, Milan)
• A52 Tangenziale Nord di Milano (north bypass road, Milan)
• A54 Tangenziale di Pavia
• A55 Tangenziale Nord di Torino e Tangenziale Sud di Torino (north and south bypass roads, Turin)
• A56 Tangenziale di Napoli
• A57 Tangenziale di Venezia
• A90 Grande Raccordo Anulare di Roma (Great Ring Road of Rome)
• RA1 Tangenziale di Bologna
• RA15 Tangenziale di Catania (Catania's Ring Road West)

[edit] List of bretelle and raccordi autostradali

Some autostrade are called bretelle, diramazioni or raccordi because they are short and have few exits.

Bretelle, diramazioni or raccordi are generally connections between two motorways, or connections between motorways and important cities without a motorway.

They have the same number (sometimes with the suffix dir) as one of the two autostrade linked, a combination of the numbers of the two autostrade linked, or the number of the main autostrada.

Number	Name (length)	Connection
	Raccordo Milano-Piazzale Corvetto (2 km)	A1 - Milano Piazzale Corvetto
	Diramazione Capodichino (3 km)	A1 - Aeroporto di Capodichino - A56
	Diramazione Roma nord (23 km)	A1 - GRA
	Diramazione Roma sud (20 km)	A1 - GRA
	Raccordo Chivasso (6 km)	A4 - Verolengo
	Raccordo Ivrea-Santhià (23,6 km)	A4 - A5
	Raccordo Aosta-Gran San Bernardo (7,9 km)	A5 - SS27
	Diramazione per Fossano (6,6 km)	A6 - Fossano
	Diramazione Gallarate-Gattico (23,2 km)	A8 - A26
	Diramazione Lucca-Viareggio (20 km)	A11 - A12
	Diramazione per Livorno (4,5 km)	A12 - Livorno
	Diramazione per Padova sud (4,3 km)	A13 - Padova
	Diramazione per Ferrara (6,3 km)	A13 - Ferrara - RA8
	Raccordo per Tangenziale di Bari (4,6 km)	A14 - Tangenziale di Bari
	Diramazione per Ravenna (29,8 km)	A14 - Ravenna
	Diramazione La Spezia-Santo Stefano di Magra	Santo Stefano di Magra - A15 - La Spezia
	Diramazione per Catania (3,7 km)	A18 - Catania
	Raccordo A19-Palermo (5,2 km)	A19 - Circonvallazione di Palermo
	Diramazione per Fiorenzuola (12,3)	A1 - A21
	Diramazione Stroppiana-Santhià (29,7 km)	A4 - A26
	Diramazione Predosa-Bettole (17 km)	A7 - A26
	Diramazione Alcamo-Trapani (36,9 km)	A29 - Trapani
	Diramazione per Birgi (13,1 km)	A29dir - Aeroporto di Trapani-Birgi
	Bretella aeroporto Falcone e Borsellino (4 km)	A29 - Aeroporto di Palermo
	Raccordo per via Belgio (5,6 km)	A29 - Circonvallazione di Palermo
	Diramazione per Pinerolo (23,44 km)	A55 - Pinerolo
	Diramazione per Moncalieri (6,18 km)	A6 - Moncalieri
	Raccordo della Falchera (3,13 km)	A55 - A4 - SR 11
	Bretella/raccordo aeroporto (6,73 km)	A57 - Aeroporto di Venezia

Trafori (T)[link]

Important alpine tunnels ((Italian) trafori) are identified by the capital letter "T" followed by a single digit number. Currently there are only three T-classified tunnels: Mont Blanc Tunnel (T1), Great St Bernard Tunnel (T2) and Frejus Road Tunnel (T4). Tunnels that cross the border between Italy and France (T1, T4) or Switzerland (T2), are treated as motorways (green signage, access control, and so on), although they are not proper motorways. The code T3 was once assigned to the Bargagli-Ferriere Tunnel in Ligurian Appennines before it was reclassified as SP 226.

	Traforo del Monte Bianco
	Traforo del Gran San Bernardo
	Traforo del Frejus

Raccordi autostradali (RA)[link]

RA stands for Raccordo autostradale (translated as "motorway connection"), a relatively short spur route that connects an autostrada to a nearby city or tourist resort not directly served by the motorway. These spurs are owned and managed by ANAS (with some exceptions, such as the RA7 that became A53 when assigned to a private company for maintenance). Some spurs are toll-free motorways (type-A), but most are type-B or type-C roads. All RA have separate carriageways with two lanes in each direction. Generally, they do not have an emergency lane.

Symbol	Number
	RA1	A1 - A13 - A14 (Tangenziale di Bologna)
	RA2	A3 - Avellino
	RA3	A1 - Siena
	RA4	A3 - Reggio Calabria - SS106
	RA5	A3 - Potenza
	RA6	A1 - Perugia
	A53 (o RA7)	A7 - Tangenziale di Pavia
	RA8	A13 - Ferrara - Porto Garibaldi
	RA9	A16 - Benevento
	RA10	Torino - A55 - Aeroporto di Caselle
	RA11	Ascoli - A14 - Porto d'Ascoli
	RA12	A25 - Chieti - A14 - Pescara
	RA13	A4 - SS202
	RA14	RA13 - Fernetti (confine di stato)
	RA15	A18 - A19 - Aut. CT-SR (Tangenziale di Catania)
	RA16	A28 - SS13
	RA17	A4 - Gorizia

Strade extraurbane principali[link]

Strada extraurbana principale sign

Type B highway (or strada extraurbana principale), commonly but unofficially known as superstrada (Italian equivalent for expressway), is a divided highway with at least two lanes in each direction, paved shoulder on the right, no cross-traffic and no at-grade intersections. Access restrictions on such highways are exactly the same as autostrade. Signage at the beginning and the end of the highways is the same, except the background color is blue instead of green. The general speed limit on strade extraurbane principali is 110 km/h. Strade extraurbane principali are not tolled. All strade extraurbane principali are owned and managed by ANAS, and directly controlled by the Italian government or by the regions.

See also[link]

• State highway (Italy)
• Transport in Italy
• Rai Isoradio

External links[link]

• Autostrade per l'Italia Official website

v t e Motorways in Italy Major routes A 1 A 2 A 3 A 4 A 5 A 6 A 7 A 8 A 9 A 10 A 11 A 12 A 13 A 14 A 15 A 16 A 17 A 18 A 19 A 20 A 21 A 22 A 23 A 24 A 25 A 26 A 27 A 28 A 29 A 30 A 31 A 32 A 33 A 91 Beltways A 50-A 51-A 52 (Milan) A 54 (Pavia) A 55 (Turin) A 56 (Naples) A 57 (Venice) A 90/GRA (Rome) RA 01 (Bologna) RA 15 (Catania) Road tunnels T1 Mont Blanc T2 Great St Bernard T3 Bargagli-Ferriere T4 Fréjus Junctions RA 02 RA 03 RA 04 RA 05 RA 06 RA 07/A53 RA 08 RA 09 RA 10 RA 11 RA 12 RA 13 RA 14 RA 16 RA 17

Gioele Dix
Born	(1956-01-03)January 3, 1956 Milan, Italy
Other names	David Ottolenghi
Website
http://www.gioeledix.it/

Gioele Dix, a pseudonym of his name David Ottolenghi (born January 3, 1956) is an Italian actor and comedian of Jewish descent.

Life[link]

Gioele Dix began his theatrical career at the end of the 1970s, promoting and animating the Milan stage company Teatro degli Eguali. Among the numerous plays he took part in, are: A Midsummer Night's Dream, a rock musical from Shakespeare directed by Gabriele Salvatores; A Martian in Rome by Ennio Flaiano and directed by Antonio Salines; two stagings of Molière’s, Le Malade imaginaire and Tartuffe with veteran actor Franco Parenti. Intending to pursue a career as stand-up comedian, he appeared at the Derby Club and the Zelig, important historical Milan cabarets, reaching fame in 1988 in the TV variety show Cocco by RAI2 with the character of a permanently enraged car driver ("fucking raving mad!").

In the 1990s he confirms his popularity as a stage actor, as well as a playwright, in a number of works and on TV, but often also as a comedian sending up and imitating renowned soccer players in prime-time Sports shows.

In the last few years, Dix had various movie engagements and filmed for the national TV together with Giorgio Albertazzi in 2004. Among the many theatrical works, he interpreted Cuori pazzi (Crazy Hearts) by F.T Altan (2000), Il libertino (The Libertine) by E.E. Schmitt together with Ottavia Piccolo (2001) where he is the first Italian man playing naked, Corto Maltese from scripts by Hugo Pratt and music by Paolo Conte. Recently he returned to the stage with Edipo.com, directed by famous Italian star Sergio Fantoni (2003); then La Bibbia ha quasi sempre ragione (The Bible Is Almost Always Right) with Cesare Picco at the piano (2004), all of them pièces enhancing the narrative dimension of the story, thus exploiting Dix’s natural talent as a raconteur.

In 2007 he was engaged in the cast of Zelig (a popular comedy TV show) as one of the comedians, interpreting his now famous caricature of the "permanently enraged car driver".

In 2008 he staged Tutta colpa di Garibaldi (It’s All Garibaldi’s Fault) with scripts by Gioele Dix, Sergio Fantoni and Nicola Fano, directed by Sergio Fantoni; he followed with the play Dixplay by himself, with the participation of Bebo Best Baldan.

Quote[link]

Io sono un automobilista, ed essendo un automobilista sono sempre costantemente incazzato come un bestia!! (I’m a car driver, and being a car driver, I’m always totally furiously irrevocably pissed off!)

—Gioele Dix

Filmography[link]

• Crimini - Disegno di sangue, directed by Gianfranco Cabiddu per RAI2
• Tracce di vita amorosa, directed by Peter Del Monte (1990)
• Per non dimenticare, directed by Massimo Martelli (1992)
• Tre passi nel delitto, directed by Fabrizio Laurenti (1993)
• Bidoni, directed by Felice Farina (1995)
• Olimpo Lupo, cronista di nera, directed by Fabrizio Laurenti (1995)
• Uno di noi, (1996)
• Se fossi in te, directed by Giulio Manfredonia (2001)
• Cerco lavoro, directed by Fratelli Frazzi (2002)
• Marcinelle, directed by Vincenzo Verdecchi (2004)
• Ora e per sempre, directed by Vincenzo Verdecchi (2004)
• Ricomincio da me, directed by Rossella Izzo (2005)
• A voce alta, directed by Vincenzo Verdecchi (2006)
• Tutti i rumori del mondo, directed by Tiziana Aristarco (2007)

Theatre[link]

• La mia patente non scade mai, regia di Gioele Dix, (1988)(1989)
• Mai a stomaco vuoto, regia di Gioele Dix, (1990)
• Antologia di Edipo, regia di Gioele Dix, (1991)(1992)
• Anna, regia di Gioele Dix, (1992)(1993)
• Sto ristrutturando, regia di Gioele Dix, (1993)(1994)
• Questa estate, regia di Gioele Dix, (1994)
• Cinque Dix, regia di Gioele Dix, (1995)
• Mi sembra che andiamo bene, regia di Gioele Dix, (1997)(1998)
• L'uomo degli appuntamenti, regia di Gioele Dix, (1998)
• Recital, regia di Gioele Dix, (1999)
• Agamennone, regia di Giorgio Gallione, (2000)
• Cuori pazzi, regia di Giorgio Gallione, (2000)(2001)
• Il Libertino, regia di Sergio Fantoni, (2001)(2002)
• Mappa del nuovo mondo, lettura delle liriche di Derek Walcott, regia di Piero Maccarinelli, (2002)
• A posto così, regia di Gioele Dix, (2002)
• Corto Maltese, regia di Giorgio Gallione, (2003)(2004)
• Edipo.com, regia di Sergio Fantoni, (2003)(2004)(2005)
• La Bibbia ha (quasi) sempre ragione, regia di Andree Ruth Shamma, (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)
• Grand Tour, cronache di viaggiatori illustri, regia di Gioele Dix, (2004)
• Amore a prima vista, letture delle poesie con regia di Wislawa Szimborska, (2004)
• I ragazzi hanno orecchie, interpretazione delle fiabe di Fernand Deligny, regia di Gioele Dix, (2005)
• Meglio il nuovo oggi (L'innovazione fa spettacolo), regia di Serena Sinigaglia, (2006)
• Tutta colpa di Garibaldi, regia di Sergio Fantoni, (2008)
• Dixplay, regia di Giancarlo Bozzo, (2008)

Bibliography[link]

Dix has also published some books on amusing themes:

• Il manuale del vero automobilista (Manual Of The True Car Driver) (M.M., 1991)
• Cinque Dix (Five Dix) (Baldini&Castoldi, 1995)
• La Bibbia ha quasi sempre ragione (The Bible Is Almost Always Right) (Mondadori, 2003)
• Manuale dell'automobilista incazzato (Manual Of The Friggin’ Mad Car Driver) (Mondadori, 2007)

External links[link]

• Official website
• Official YouTube Account
• "Gieole Dix, My Roots", by C. Cannella (Corriere della Sera, 2004)
• Gioele Dix at the Internet Movie Database