In Italy, there is also generally good signage indicating where one may or may not park their vehicle. Obey and you will not be ticketed. Disobey, and any number of things may happen do you, depending on how well you have followed the Top Secret Unwritten Laws of Parking in Italy. These rules are as follows:
1) If you are parked illegally in a handicapped spot, you will surely be ticketed.
2) If you are parked illegally in a place you obviously shouldn’t park in, but the signage could be interpreted as ambiguous, you may or may not be ticketed.
3) If you are parked illegally in a place that only an idiot would park in, and your violation is so balls-to-the-wall egregious that there can be no question about your intent to flagrantly break any and all possible laws of civil order, BUT your parking choice is neither hazardous nor obnoxious and reveals a certain flare for creative genius or uncommon valor, you will be respectfully left alone. This includes leaving your car for days in any of the following locations: in the center of a roundabout; in the middle of the street on top of the lines dividing the lanes; on a sidewalk that is both wide for no reason, and distant from irritable shopkeepers; on an island dividing secondary lanes of traffic.
This can be illustrated by the following formula, where FN is you getting away with it:
FN = Flagrant illegality / (Creative Genius – Danger) + (Size of Balls – Obnoxiousness) – Irritability of inconvenienced parties