Free Parking in Bologna: Certosa and Alternatives

Certosa is the clearest free-parking choice for Bologna’s western approach, with a bus journey onwards to Piazza Maggiore. Tanari offers a walking alternative, but its provisional free listing differs from its published charging regulation. Piazza XX Settembre is a paid option with a shorter walk into the centre.

Choose for the whole visit, not just the parking charge: travelling into town and returning to the car both use part of your stay. For an evening visit, authorised street bays outside the historic centre offer another way to avoid paying for parking.

Certosa, Tanari and Piazza XX Settembre

Six hours means parking entry to exit, including both onward journeys. Daily charges are shown on their published basis.

Criterion	Certosa	Tanari	Piazza XX Settembre
Approach side	West	North-west	North, station side
Six-hour parking cost	Free	—	€13.80 Mon–Thu; €14.10 Fri–Sun
Published daily charge	Free	—	€20 maximum
To Piazza Maggiore	Bus 39 and walks: about 5.1 km, about 30 minutes	Walk: about 2.1 km, about 30 minutes	Walk: about 1.4 km, about 20 minutes

Choose Certosa if you arrive from the west and are happy to use the bus. Vehicle entry and exit are available 24 hours a day, every day. From the motorway interchange, follow Asse Sud-Ovest and Viale Gandhi towards Certosa Nord. This permitted approach avoids restricted-zone camera gates.

Tanari suits a north-western arrival and travellers willing to walk. From ring-road exit 5, follow the signed approach via Via Cristoforo Colombo, Via Marco Polo, Via Zanardi and Via Tanari. It avoids ZTL camera gates, but seasonal air-quality restrictions can separately affect certain vehicles.

Tanari’s free listing is provisional, not a settled charging promise. It describes parking as free for all users, pending tariff definition, while a different published regulation retains hourly and daily charges and conditional park-and-ride exemptions. Do not treat its older public-transport ticket arrangement as the ordinary urban fare.

Piazza XX Settembre offers the shorter walk from the station side, without relying on a bus. Its charge depends on the day of the week. For all three choices, leave room within your stay for the return journey rather than treating the whole parking period as time in Piazza Maggiore.

Car parks and longer stays

Certosa’s unrestricted parking makes it useful for an extended stay as well as a day visit. Beside Largo Vittime Lager Nazisti, it lets you leave the car away from the historic centre. For an overnight stay, weigh the accommodation’s location against the journey back to collect the car. Follow posted signs and general traffic rules.

Tanari’s route into town trades a bus ride for a substantial walk. Travel light if you choose it: luggage and children can make the return less appealing after a day on foot. Its charging regulation also distinguishes onward travel by public transport or registered private bicycle from ordinary parking, so those conditional arrangements should not be confused with its provisional general free listing.

Piazza XX Settembre is the paid walking alternative near Bologna Centrale. The Monday–Thursday and Friday–Sunday short-stay bands differ, while a daily maximum caps the charge. The shorter onward walk can be worth paying for when you have bags, although it still leaves luggage to carry through town. Remove valuables before leaving any parked car, rather than rearranging them visibly after parking.

Certosa buses and urban tickets

Bus

39

Certosa stop

Certosa Gandhi

Return from the centre

Via Lame, towards Ospedale Maggiore

Single, retailer or onboard contactless

€2.30

Single, onboard coins

€2.50

CityPass, per journey

€1.90 with a 10-journey pass

Single-ticket validity

75 minutes from validation, or until leaving the bus on which it was validated

Ordinary out-and-back, per fare-paying traveller

€4.60 retailer/contactless; €5 with coins

From Certosa, line 39 runs via Bologna Centrale towards central Bologna. Piazza Maggiore is reached on foot after the bus journey, rather than being a named bus stop. On the return, board in the direction serving the car park, not simply whichever bus has the same line number.

The bus option includes walking at both ends, so it is not a substitute for all walking. Keep bags manageable for boarding and for the final approach to the square. The ordinary urban fare covers Certosa within Bologna, as well as surrounding areas including San Lazzaro and Casalecchio.

For a six-hour visit, plan on separate outward and return singles. Two fare-paying travellers spend €9.20 using retailer tickets or contactless, while four spend €18.40. A larger party can spend more on buses than on the nearer paid car park, despite leaving the car in a free space. CityPass can reduce the per-journey cost if your party’s travel makes a ten-journey purchase useful.

Street bays and evening parking

For evening street parking, look beyond the ring boulevards enclosing the historic centre. Visitor blue-marked bays here are paid daily from 08:00 to 20:00, establishing a payment-free period from 20:00 to 08:00. An evening payment exemption does not remove a bay’s other restrictions.

Rapid-turnover bays are intended for shorter visits, and their sign determines the limit. Standard blue bays outside the centre do not acquire a universal maximum stay simply because of their location. If you leave the car overnight, consider whether your planned collection falls after charging resumes, rather than judging the stay only by your evening arrival.

Restricted access and camera fines

Bologna’s historic-centre limited traffic zone, or ZTL, lies broadly inside the ring boulevards. Ordinary cars without authorisation cannot enter daily from 07:00 to 20:00. Outside that window, separate pedestrian and central-area restrictions still apply.

The central T area around Piazza Maggiore covers the T-shaped stretch of Via Rizzoli, Via Indipendenza and Via Ugo Bassi. It is restricted to authorised vehicles 24 hours a day, and an ordinary ZTL day ticket does not authorise entry. Its recurring pedestrian periods run from 08:00 Saturday to 22:00 Sunday, and 08:00–22:00 on public holidays.

Visitors have no general daytime exemption. If you stay at a hotel or B&B inside the historic centre, arrange access through the accommodation. A €9 daily guest title combines ZTL access, paid parking and TPER public transport, but does not grant unrestricted access to specially regulated areas. Non-resident hybrid cars are not eligible for the hybrid ZTL permit.

Is the car worth bringing?

Parking in Bologna is manageable if you choose the car park before approaching the centre. Bring the car for a wider road trip, but for a centre-only visit, arriving without one avoids the parking and return-journey decisions.

Bringing a car for a centre visit

Pros

• Useful for continuing a road trip beyond Bologna.
• Certosa avoids a parking charge if bus travel suits your party.
• Piazza XX Settembre offers a shorter walk when carrying bags.

Cons

• Certosa’s bus expenditure grows with the number of fare-paying passengers.
• Tanari involves a longer walk in both directions and unsettled general charging terms.
• Children, luggage or difficulty walking can make either onward journey tiring.
• Restricted access still governs where you may drive.

Choose with the journey back in mind, particularly overnight when your accommodation may be far from the car. If the selected options do not suit your walking or luggage needs, central car parks and access rules offer a broader paid-parking choice. If you have difficulty walking, weigh the walk to and from the car as well as the parking charge.

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: services and fares and charges.

• TPER — service
• TPER (Trasporto Passeggeri Emilia Romagna) — service
• TPER (operator; route information reported by the Municipality of Bologna) — service
• TPER (Trasporto Passeggeri Emilia-Romagna) — service
• Tariffe
• Carta dei servizi Bologna
• Bologna Welcome — fares and charges
• TPER; Bologna Welcome (tourism information service) — fares and charges
• APCOA Italia; Autostazione di Bologna S.r.l. — fares and charges
• Ordinanza
• Ordinanza qualità dell’aria: limitazioni alla circolazione dal 01.10 al 31.03 di ogni anno
• Da lunedì 9 novembre l’attivazione delle cinque nuove telecamere SIRIO in centro storico
• Aree di Sosta | Sosty
• CENTRO STORICO
• Elenco delle vie in cui si trovano aree di sosta “a rotazione”
• Testo unico relativo all’accesso alla ZTL del centro storico (Allegato Ordinanza P.G. n. 372126/2017)
• Italian Highway Code (Legislative Decree No. 285/1992) — fares and charges
• Limited traffic area (ZTL)
• Question Time, chiarimenti sulla sosta dei camper al parcheggio della Certosa
• Bologna Welcome (official Bologna tourist information) — service
• Parcheggio Tanari
• TPER S.p.A. — service
• Autostazione di Bologna S.r.l. — service