Millions of Italians are expected to take advantage of Thursday's May Day holiday by turning it into a long weekend break.
The Autostrade motorways company has estimated that between Thursday evening and Monday morning over 12 million cars will travel on its network of toll roads.
The worst days for road traffic will be Wednesday afternoon-evening and Thursday morning, and Sunday afternoon-evening and Monday morning.
There is also expected to be a large influx of foreign tourists with heavy traffic at border crossings with France, Switzerland and Austria.
In view of the intense traffic, roadwork on the nation's motorways will be reduced to a minimum and trucks will be banned during peak hours.
The FS state railways had added an additional 12 trains to handle some one million extra passengers through May 4.
Last week's Liberation Day holiday weekend saw the heaviest railway traffic of the year.
Air traffic has already increased considerably with over a million passengers expected to pass through Rome's Fiumicino airport alone.
Tour operators said the favorite destinations for Italians travelling abroad were the Red Sea resorts and Egypt, with a surge in demand for cruises along the Nile River.
Italians willing to spend more time airborne are heading towards the Caribbean - especially Cuba, Cancun and Santo Domingo - or the Maldives.
The most popular European destinations were said to be Barcelona, Prague, Budapest, Paris and Madrid, while this year there was an increase in interest for Istanbul and resorts in Tunisia.
Some three million Italians will only take May 1 off with most packing picnic lunches and heading to the sea, the lakes and the countryside, according to the Coldiretti farmers' union.
Italy's increasingly popular holiday farms are reporting no vacancies over the long weekend but are sure to have extra tables out to offer day trippers a May Day lunch.
