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.
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Italy was the very first country in the world to start building motorways, i.e. fast roads reserved to motor vehicles. The "Milano-Laghi" motorway (connecting Milan to Varese) was in fact devised by Piero Puricelli, a civil engineer and entrepreneur, who received the first authorizations to build a "public utility" fast road in 1921, and completed the construction (back then one lane per direction was enough) between 1924 and 1926. By the end of the 1920s, over 4,000 kilometers of multi-lane motorways were constructed throughout Italy, linking many cities and rural towns to one another. 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, whereas the original idea was thought of earlier. Lore has that the US government conceived an Interstate Highway System, to supplant the previous US roads network, when officials visited the Italian motorways in the late 1930s.
Italy's autostrade have the standard speed limit of 130 km/h (81 mph) for cars. Limits for other vehicles (or for cases of foul weather/low visibility) are lower. There are legal provisions enabling the operators to set the limit to 150 km/h (93 mph) on their concessions on a voluntary basis, only if some conditions are met: three lanes in each direction, and a working SICVE (also called Safety Tutor) speed camera system.
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.
This is a list of tangenziali classified as autostrada.
Some autostrade are called bretelle, diramazioni or raccordi because they are short and because they have few exit.
Bretelle, diramazioni or raccordi are generally connections between two motorways or connections between motorways and important cities without a motorway.
They can have the same number (sometimes with the suffix dir) of one of the two autostrade linked or a combination of the numbers of the two autostrade linked or the number of the main autostrada.
| Number | Name | 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 |
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). All these tunnels, that cross the borderline between Italy and France (T1, T4) or Switzerland (T2), are treated as motorways (green signage, control of access, 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 |
RA stands for Raccordo autostradale (translated as "motorway connection"). A so-called raccordo autostradale is a relatively short spur route that connects an autostrada to a nearby city or touristic resort that is not directly served by the motorway. These spurs are owned and managed by ANAS (with some exceptions, such as RA7 that became A53 when assigned to a private company for maintenance). Some spurs are toll-free motorways (type-A), but most of them are type-B or type-C roads. By the way all RA have separate carriageways with two lane for each direction but generally without 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 |
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| RA16 | A28 - SS13 | |
| RA17 | A4 - Gorizia |
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 for each direction, paved shoulder on the right, no cross-traffic and no at-grade intersections. Access restrictions on such highways are exactly the same of autostrade, as well as signage at the beginning and the end of the highway (with the only difference being the background color, blue instead of green). 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 (that is under the direct control of Italian government) or by the regions.
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