Roberto Di Lorenzo is the first driver fined for honking improperly.

Roberto Di Lorenzo, a Neapolitan, is a well-known figure in sports circles: since 1973, he has coached basketball teams, including at the national level, and in 2016 he received the title of Honorable Coach. But his notoriety exploded on social media when, on the morning of Friday, August 7, 2026, he received the first fine in Italy for improperly honking his car horn in Naples.

As he himself recounted, Di Lorenzo was driving a car, and a van was ahead of him, which had stopped to pick up a group of tourists. To urge the driver and speed up the maneuver, Roberto honked his horn several times, as city drivers always do when they're in a hurry.

This time, however, the move didn't go unnoticed by an attentive traffic policeman , who served a ticket charging the driver with a violation of Article 156 (paragraphs 1 and 5) of the Highway Code, which provides for a penalty for "improper use of an audible warning device." This behavior, hence the fine, creates unnecessary noise and contributes to noise pollution in the city.

Di Lorenzo received the ticket at home because it was "unable to reach the car" he was traveling in. He will have to pay a fine of €60,50, reduced to €47,90 if paid within five days of the date of notification.

The most peculiar thing about this story is the context in which it occurred. In a GfK Eurisko survey, sponsored by Amplifon, Naples was the noisiest Italian city among those analyzed and third in the world , behind New York and Los Angeles.

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