San Marino
Cap in the app: 70 km/h.
Speed
70 km/h on the entire road network, and a sign can only lower it. Article 37 sets seventy kilometres an hour su tutta la rete stradale del territorio della Repubblica — a single figure for the whole country, without road classes and without vehicle categories. Signage marks the stretches where a lower figure applies, and the ceiling may be raised only by a special decree for newly built roads whose construction permits it. No such decree exists in the statute archive: the two speed decrees that can be found, 33/1970 for the superstrada Borgo Maggiore–Dogana and 47/1976 for the whole network, both set the same seventy. There is no limit of its own for a trailer, an outfit or a motorhome.
Source. Codice della strada, Decreto Delegato 26 maggio 2008 n.81, art. 37, testo coordinato aggiornato al 19 gennaio 2024
Dimensions — the code points away from itself
San Marino's traffic code contains not a single dimension figure. Whoever reads the Codice della strada from cover to cover finds only article 54, which says that vehicles which "per la propria sagoma, massa o carico, superino le dimensioni o i pesi consentiti dalla segnaletica stradale" need a permit from the chief of police case by case, and a sign catalogue with empty placeholders of the type "…metri". Read the code alone and the conclusion is that San Marino is an Andorra: the figures are on the sign, not in the law.
That conclusion is wrong, and article 54 says why itself. It points at Legge 20 settembre 1985 n.108, "Norme per la definizione, classificazione dei veicoli e la regolamentazione delle caratteristiche tecniche", whose article 15 is called word for word "Dimensioni massime dei veicoli". That law is alive: it is missing from the code's own repeal list in article 72, it is invoked by article 54 in the present tense, and it appears in the code's list "LEGGI CITATE NEL TESTO COORDINATO".
The chain of amendments, and why it must be read all the way
Article 15 has been rewritten four times, and the four versions say different things about precisely the figures this page is about.
| Act | What it did to article 15 |
|---|---|
| Legge 20 settembre 1985 n.108 | original wording |
| Decreto 24 febbraio 1994 n.17, art. 6 | replaces the whole article — width 2.50, caravan 6.05/8, motorhome 8.00, outfit 18.35 |
| Decreto 15 luglio 1996 n.98, art. unico | replaces it again — width 2.55, caravan 6.50/8, outfit 18.75 |
| Decreto 4 febbraio 2004 n.14, art. 3 | replaces it again — the whole length list is rewritten |
| Decreto 4 maggio 2004 n.58, art. 3 | the Consiglio Grande e Generale ratifies 14/2004 with amendments, and that text is the final one |
Stopping at 1994 would have given five of six cells wrong: the width 2.50 instead of 2.55, the motorhome 8.00 instead of 12.00 and the outfit 18.35 instead of 18.75. That is exactly the kind of error the method rule exists for — cite the version in force, never an unread original.
Decreto Delegato 22 febbraio 2017 n.24 rewrites the same law's articles 3, 5, 6, 7, 7 bis, 7 ter and 14 and introduces the EU vehicle categories L, M, N and O. It does not touch article 15.
The version in force
Article 15 of Legge 108/1985, in the version given by Decreto 4 maggio 2004 n.58 art. 3:
Art. 15 Dimensioni massime dei veicoli
Tutti i veicoli per poter circolare su strada, aree pubbliche o comunque aperte al pubblico, non possono superare le seguenti dimensioni:
1) lunghezza massima: veicolo a motore diverso da un autobus: 12,00 m; rimorchio: 12,00 m; autoarticolato 15,50 m ovvero 16,50 m (a condizione che l'avanzamento massimo del perno ralla rispetto al filo carrozzeria posteriore del semirimorchio sia contenuto entro i 12,00 m …); autotreno: 18,75 m; autosnodato: 18,75 m; autobus a 2 assi: 13,50 m; autobus aventi più di 2 assi:
15,00 m; autobus + rimorchio: 18,75 m. […] Ogni veicolo a motore o veicolo combinato in movimento deve potersi iscrivere in una corona circolare dal raggio esterno di 12,50 m e dal raggio interno di 5,30 m (fascia di ingombro).
2) larghezza massima, esclusi i retrovisori, di metri 2,55 aumentati a metri 2,60 per i veicoli adibiti al trasporto di merci in regime di temperatura controllata e rispondenti alle prescrizioni tecniche internazionali per le suddette categorie di veicoli (norme A.T.P.).
3) Altezza massima di metri 4,00 che può raggiungere i metri 4,30 negli autobus, e negli autosnodati, autoarticolati e autotreni, adibiti al trasporto di persone; fanno eccezione le caravans che devono avere la carrozzeria con le seguenti dimensioni massime: 1. lunghezza di metri 6,50 se ad un asse; metri 8 se a due assi; 2. larghezza di metri 2,30; 3. altezza da terra non superiore a 1,8 volte la larghezza della carreggiata.
| Dimension | Figure | From |
|---|---|---|
| Width, car | 2.55 | point 2 |
| Width, caravan | 2.30 | the caravans exception, point 2 |
| Height | 4.00 | point 3 |
| Length, caravan | 6.50 / 8.00 | the caravans exception, point 1 — without the drawbar |
| Length, motorhome | 12.00 | point 1, veicolo a motore diverso da un autobus |
| Outfit | 18.75 | point 1, autotreno |
The caravan width of 2.30 is the strictest dimension in the material. Two metres thirty is twenty-five centimetres below the width almost every modern caravan has — a caravan of 2.50 m is perfectly legal in every country around and too wide in San Marino. The exception is not open to interpretation: it names le caravans in plain words and sets three figures of its own on the body. That the row will alarm often is not a fault but the point; whoever is warned has been told something no other service mentions.
The exception stands grammatically under point 3 but applies to all three dimensions. The word Altezza stands first in the paragraph and then fanno eccezione le caravans, with a list enumerating length, width and height above ground. An exception listing three dimensions is an exception from three rules, wherever in the numbering the editor happened to place it. The same list stood in the 1996 version as a paragraph of its own after all three points; the 2004 ratification moved it in under point 3 without touching the words.
The height cell is the general four, not the caravans formula. The caravan's own height rule is relative — at most 1.8 times the track width — and track width is not something the form asks for. That formula is moreover in practice stricter than four metres: a caravan with a 2.10 m track lands at 3.78. Four metres is therefore the figure that binds with certainty, and below it the app stays silent rather than guessing at a track width.
The caravan length is 6.50 with one axle and 8.00 with two, exactly as in Albania, and the form does not ask about axles. The cell therefore gets the higher figure: over eight metres the caravan is too long whatever the number of axles, and in between we do not know and must stay silent. The same exception Albania has, and it is noted country by country.
The length is measured on the body, without the drawbar. The exception says devono avere la carrozzeria con le seguenti dimensioni massime, and the body is the caravan without the drawgear. The contrast is moreover deliberate: the 1994 version wrote the general rule as "lunghezza totale, compresi gli organi di traino" and the caravans exception as "la carrozzeria" in the same breath. San Marino therefore enters MATBASIS as "without", together with Finland, the United Kingdom and Monaco. The app asks for the caravan's total length with the bar, so a caravan of 8.60 m is legal here.
The motorhome is 12.00, not 8.00. Until 2004 there was a sentence of its own — "la lunghezza massima delle autocaravans non può eccedere … gli 8,00 metri" — and it disappeared when the article was replaced in its entirety. The motorhome therefore falls back on veicolo a motore diverso da un autobus, twelve metres. It is also the looser of the two readings, so both routes lead here.
The width for a motorhome is 2.55, not 2.30. The caravans exception mentions only caravans, and the word autocaravan does not stand in the version in force at all. Nothing pulls the motorhome into the caravan's narrower figure, and 2.55 is moreover the looser of the alternatives. The exception for 2.60 is expressly written for ATP vehicles with temperature-controlled goods, that is, refrigerated lorries, exactly as in Monaco.
The speed in full
Article 37 of the Codice della strada:
Ai fini della sicurezza della circolazione e per la tutela della incolumità delle persone, su tutta la rete stradale del territorio della Repubblica è stabilito il limite di velocità di settanta chilometri orari; apposita segnaletica indica i tratti stradali nei quali è obbligatorio osservare un limite di velocità inferiore. Con apposito decreto, il limite di velocità generale stabilito al comma che precede può essere elevato nel caso di realizzazione di strade le cui caratteristiche costruttive e funzionali lo consentano e sempre con l'apposizione di apposita segnaletica.
Seventy therefore applies to every road and every vehicle, and there is no separate figure for a trailer or a vehicle combination anywhere in the code. The raising valve in the second sentence requires a decree of its own, and the statute archive's two speed decrees — Decreto 12 agosto 1970 n.33 for the superstrada Borgo Maggiore–Dogana and Decreto 14 settembre 1976 n.47 for the whole network — set the same seventy as the code. The cap is therefore 70 and in practice cannot slow anything: it sits exactly on the law's figure.
The code otherwise knows three lower levels, and all three come from the sign and not from a vehicle type: article 15 speaks of roads "con limite di velocità pari o inferiore ai 50 Km/h", article 16 of zone 30, and articles 18, 25 and 26 return to "strade su cui vige il limite di 70 km/h" as the highest class. The penalty scale in article 66 measures the breach in steps of 40 and 60 km/h over the applicable limit.
Method notes
The consolidated code is served as a ZIP, not as a page. The route is /on-line/home/testi-coordinati.html → a category page docCat.NNNNNNNN.1.150.20.html → documento17103585.html, which answers with Content-Type: application/download_zip and Content-Disposition: attachment. In the archive lie two PDFs, one clean and one with amendment notes in the margin. Neither can be reached by following a link with a filename in it.
The statute archive has no browsable index, but its search form is open. /on-line/home/archivio-leggi-decreti-e-regolamenti.html accepts an unauthenticated POST against a Lucene index. The fields are P0_path (/home/tomcat/indicizzazione/indexleggi), P0_title, P0_document (free text in the body), P0_tipo, P0_numero, P0_anno, annoiniziale, annofinale and P0_paginazione. The responses point to documentoNNNNNNNN.html, which delivers raw application/pdf. The whole chain of amendments above was found that way: P0_title=dimensioni massime veicoli gave 1994 and 1996, P0_title=definizione classificazione veicoli gave 2004 and 2017. Quotation marks around a phrase in P0_document give zero hits — search for a single word.
The website disclaims authenticity. Every page carries the line "qualsiasi documento estratto dal presente sito non ha carattere di autenticità … Per avere una copia autentica … è necessario rivolgersi alla Segreteria Istituzionale". This is parliament's own publication and the best that can be read remotely, but anyone acting on a figure should know that the formally authentic copy is with the Segreteria Istituzionale.
**The word caravan does not appear in the traffic code.** A search of the consolidated code's 149,000 characters gives zero hits on caravan, zero on autocaravan and a single one on roulotte. Had the reading stopped at the code, San Marino would have become a row with "per road" in every cell — six empty cells instead of the country's strictest caravan width.
Sources
- Codice della strada — Decreto Delegato 26 maggio 2008 n.81 (ratification of DD 28 aprile 2008 n.67), testo coordinato aggiornato al 19 gennaio 2024. Article 37 (speed), article 54 (vehicles over the signposted dimension), article 72 (repeals).
- Legge 20 settembre 1985 n.108 — Norme per la definizione, classificazione dei veicoli e la regolamentazione delle caratteristiche tecniche. Article 15.
- Decreto 24 febbraio 1994 n.17 — art. 6 replaces article 15; art. 9 repeals decrees 30/1987, 132/1989, 12/1991 and 114/1991.
- Decreto 15 luglio 1996 n.98 — art. unico replaces article 15 again.
- Decreto 4 maggio 2004 n.58 — ratification with amendments of Decreto 4 febbraio 2004 n.14; art. 3 gives article 15 its version in force.
- Decreto Delegato 22 febbraio 2017 n.24 — the EU categories L, M, N and O into Legge 108/1985; does not touch article 15.
- Decreto 14 settembre 1976 n.47 — 70 km/h on the whole road network, the figure the code later took over.