I renewed mine over the summer. My mum nearly had a heart attack when the DVLA envelope arrived at her house. She phoned my up in a panic thinking I'd done something wrong!

A uk driving licence is valid in italy if it is the eu version with the blue flag. You do not have to change it until it runs out. There is a. Eu rule that states that the licence is valid even if the address on the licence is not your current address. You can also have your licence recognised here in italy but there doesnt seem much point. If you need to renew an expired licence it does cost a bit, you can either do all the work yourself and save a bit or get the local branch of the italian autombile association (aci) to do the work for you and pay more. If you do it yourself you first go to the post office to pay the italian Dvla called the motorizzazione and then the hospital for the eye test. Then you make an appointment for the eye test and once thats done you take all of the paperwork to the motorizzazione with id and old licence and ask for a new one, which is valid for ten years. When i did mine a month ago they didnt want me to keep my licence while i was waitingfor the new one. Make sure you insist on keeping it!

I have a question for my DH who has a license from anther EU country. He was told at the motorizzazione that he had to get some kind of 'bollo' on the license (a sticker I think) showing that the license in valid in Italy since he lives here. Has anyone else had to do this? His license is the standard card sized plastic one with the EU flag in the corner and it is not expired.

Gelato, you do that at the town hall when you change residency if you have an Italian one. Do you have to do it for an EU one? Don't know, but I woudn't have thought so. How are they supposed to register the add. change for a license they didn't issue?

Yeah this is what I mentioned before, its called a validazione, but if you licence is not expired and and its got the eu flag then I do not see the reason, unless you are unlucky enough to lose it, maybe that would make a difference if you then asked for an italian licence replacement.

anyone married to a vigile out there?
The OH (italian) wants me to LIE and take on one of his (many) speeding fines as he says and I quote 'you are a foreigner and they won't ever find you'.
He assures me that if I claim I was driving on my English license they will not put the points on as they will never bother to follow up on speeding fines if you have a uk license... as you can imagine, I am not at all happy about this, never ever having a speeding fine in my life (yes I am a dorothy goody two shoes).
any advice? cheers

(oh and yes I am still here in pizzaland... just silent stalker of this great site

I am not married to a vigile, but I know that the speeding point systems are different in the UK and Italy, so I doubt they can transfer the points to your licence.
Also, the points stay I think for 2 years( in Italy) and get annuled if no other offence is committed.

I had a friend in the UK who was married to a police inspector. She had 6points on her licence for speeding that he had carried out.... the very idea made me sick to my stomach... if you can't do the time (for whatever reason) then don't do the crime is my opinion.... I have no points on my licence and only once got stopped for overtaking a police car on Brighton seafront even though I was very careful to stay within the speed limit. I think he was just 'pulling rank' on me (woman on her own in clapped out old car at midnight) and I was only a little bit gobby because he told me it wasn't necessary to go to the police station to check both mine and his speedo....

I don't think they can give you points. The Uk couldn't give my italian wife points when she was in England. But in England they can and will take you to court and fine you and the fine can be high. That would be bad if they did that to you over here.

I wrote a nice letter to the court in the uk for my wife and they let her off. But my best friend Giavanna also in the UK who had an italian licence had to go to court. She was told off, given a big fine and the magistrate said she should now go and get an uk licence. She didn't but is always scared of getting another fine.

If it was me I would say no.

You can continue to drive on your UK licence but you should get a sticker from the motorizzazzione which gives you a permit to drive - the carabinieri complain that they cant read English and therefore dont understand your licence - you put the sticker on your plastic licence and all is ok - its jsut that I have never found anyone to give me the sticker....

you get the sticker from the Motorizzazione in your town or city for the 'Riconoscimento di patente di guida estera stati ue' but as I said before your uk driving licence is valid if it hasn't expired, there is no legal obligation to change it to a local one. Check out this page: http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope/citiz...q/index_en.htm

Your husband's wrong you WILL get the fine but they can't deduct points from your driving license. If you look at the statistics most of the speeding is done by over 70's or foreigners! So when in Rome do as the Romans do

Ok, so he pays the fine, and pays for a new pair of boots for me (as punishment) this way he may learn.

choose an expensive pair

or two pairs