During my successive research on the Targa Florio then on the Alfa Romeo TZ2, I really bathed a few weeks in Italy, failing to drag my gaiters there. So I was able to see a good number of plates on the cars, license plates painted with stencils, or drawn by hand, so much so that I set out to do some research on this subject. So I decided to talk about it here, coming back to the most important period, the most authentic too.
Today, Italy has changed its registration system to the European system, like France. It is a succession of letters and numbers in three blocks: 2 letters, 3 numbers, 2 letters, with a left blue stripe for the country and a right blue stripe for the province or the department or the region. So much for today, France or Italy.
But before the appearance of the current system, France or Italy, the province or the department, played a strong role. In France, we were on a block of 4 digits + a block of 2 letters + the department number. On the road to the holidays, locating the numbers of the departments was then an easy game to occupy the children, between two games of « le jeu des 1000 bornes ». A system used from 1950 to 2009.
In Italy, however, the system was quite close. From 1927 to 1994, the two letters of the province were an essential part of registration, a component itself. This gave a block of 2 letters + a block of 6 numbers, and these two letters starting the registration were not there by chance, they were the letters of the main city, of the province to which the car was attached. . Sometimes when the plate format required it, for example, we had 2 letters + 6 numbers.
Here, for example, we have a plate of a car registered in UDINE (UD), north-east of Venice, with its registration number. Here it is one of the nine Alfa Romeo TZ2 Autodelta. Chance you imagine. Note that only Roma, the capital, displays ROMA in full on the license plates. We have class or we don’t have it in Rome.
Note that each plaque from the period bears a star. It symbolizes the Italian republic.
Two letters for a city and a province, so here is the complete table.
| DIMINUTIVE | CITY | PROVINCE |
| AG | Agrigento | Sicilia |
| AL | Alessandria | Piemonte |
| AN | Ancona | Marche |
| AO | Aosta | Valle d’Aosta |
| AP | Ascoli-Piceno | Marche |
| AQ | Aquila | Abruzzo |
| AR | Arezzo | Toscana |
| AT | Asti | Piemonte |
| AV | Avellino | Campania |
| BA | Bari | Puglia |
| BG | Bergamo | Lombardia |
| BI | Biella | Piemonte |
| BL | Belluno | Veneto |
| BN | Benevento | Campania |
| BO | Bologna | Emilia Romagna |
| BR | Brindisi | Puglia |
| BS | Brescia | Lombardia |
| BT | Barletta-Andria-Trani | Puglia |
| BZ | Bolzano | Trentino Alto Adige |
| CA | Cagliari | Sardegna |
| CB | Campobasso | Molise |
| CE | Caserta | Campania |
| CH | Chieti | Abruzzo |
| CI | Carbonia-Iglesias | Sardegna |
| CL | Caltanissetta | Sicilia |
| CN | Cuneo | Piemonte |
| CO | Como | Lombardia |
| CR | Cremona | Lombardia |
| CS | Cosenza | Calabria |
| CT | Catania | Sicilia |
| CZ | Catanzaro | Calabria |
| EN | Enna | Sicilia |
| FC | Forli-Cesena | Emilia Romagna |
| FE | Ferrara | Emilia Romagna |
| FG | Foggia | Puglia |
| FI | Firenze | Toscana |
| FM | Fermo | Marche |
| FR | Frosinone | Lazio |
| GE | Genova | Liguria |
| GO | Gorizia | Friuli Venezia Giulia |
| GR | Grosseto | Toscana |
| IM | Imperia | Liguria |
| IS | Isernia | Molise |
| KR | Crotone | Calabria |
| LC | Lecco | Lombardia |
| LE | Lecce | Puglia |
| LI | Livorno | Toscana |
| LO | Lodi | Lombardia |
| LT | Latina | Lazio |
| LU | Lucca | Toscana |
| MB | Monza e Brianza | Lombardia |
| MC | Macerata | Marche |
| ME | Messina | Sicilia |
| MI | Milano | Lombardia |
| MN | Mantova | Lombardia |
| MO | Modena | Emilia Romagna |
| MS | Massa-Carrara | Toscana |
| MT | Matera | Basilicata |
| NA | Napoli | Campania |
| NO | Novara | Piemonte |
| NU | Nuoro | Sardegna |
| OG | Ogliastra | Sardegna |
| OR | Oristano | Sardegna |
| OT | Olbia-Tempio | Sardegna |
| PA | Palermo | Sicilia |
| PC | Piacenza | Emilia Romagna |
| PD | Padova | Veneto |
| PE | Pescara | Abruzzo |
| PG | Perugia | Umbria |
| PI | Pisa | Toscana |
| PN | Pordenone | Friuli Venezia Giulia |
| PO | Prato | Toscana |
| PR | Parma | Emilia Romagna |
| PT | Pistoia | Toscana |
| PU | Pesaro-Urbino | Marche |
| PV | Pavia | Lombardia |
| PZ | Potenza | Basilicata |
| RA | Ravenna | Emilia Romagna |
| RC | Reggio-Calabria | Calabria |
| RE | Reggio-Emilia | Emilia Romagna |
| RG | Ragusa | Sicilia |
| RI | Rieti | Lazio |
| RN | Rimini | Emilia Romagna |
| RO | Rovigo | Veneto |
| Roma | Roma | Lazio |
| SA | Salerno | Campania |
| SI | Siena | Toscana |
| SO | Sondrio | Lombardia |
| SP | La-Spezia | Liguria |
| SR | Siracusa | Sicilia |
| SS | Sassari | Sardegna |
| SV | Savona | Liguria |
| TA | Taranto | Puglia |
| TE | Teramo | Abruzzo |
| TN | Trento | Trentino Alto Adige |
| TO | Torino | Piemonte |
| TP | Trapani | Sicilia |
| TR | Terni | Umbria |
| TS | Trieste | Friuli Venezia Giulia |
| TV | Treviso | Veneto |
| UD | Udine | Friuli Venezia Giulia |
| VA | Varese | Lombardia |
| VB | Verbania | Piemonte |
| VC | Vercelli | Piemonte |
| VE | Venezia | Veneto |
| VI | Vicenza | Veneto |
| VR | Verona | Veneto |
| VS | Medio Campidano | Sardegna |
| VT | Viterbo | Lazio |
| VV | Vibo-Valentia | Calabria |
As a kid, during a family vacation in Sicily, I saw a good number of cars, Piaggio APEs and trucks from another time on the roads. These boats from another era bore the registrations of AG, CL, PA, CT, EN and many others … I admit that these plates are now real Proust madeleines … Today, during your next vacation in Italy, when you are passing through the Stelvio Pass, Monza or Florence, I invite you to examine the car registrations. The plates with the two letters before six digits are often old cars. Which in no way detracts from the charm of this little game.
And according to you, which car model inherited this system in its name? This is the Alfa Romeo MiTo. MI for Milano, TO for Torino: designed in Milan, produced in Turin. And no mythomania. Between Milan and Turin, Alfa is ultimately very Fiat.
Thanks to this article, you will now be able to know where your Fiat 500 comes from, the Ferrari 308 GTB of your uncle this armored vehicle, the Mito of your aunt Corinne or the Lancia Aurelia B20 GT of Arturo Benedetto Giovanni Giuseppe Pietro Archangelo Alfredo Cartoffoli.
Andiamo,
Jean-Charles
