BritInParis

Perhaps not, but it's in their interests to do so.

modicasa

Why is it in the interests of the Italian govt, or Europe to care about UK licences. The Europeans know who can legally drive in ITaly, if Johnny Brit hasnt got the right piece of paper its his fault not Italy's.
For the rest, why exactly? So Italy can import micrewaved findus dinners?

BritInParis

Because there are far more EU27 residents of the UK then there are British residents in the EU27.

Cliftonensis

as long as your UK license is the EU type you only need to convert it to an Italian one when it expires. Local police are still claiming you have to change it after a year but that is not Correct. After 55 you have to pay for a medical here and the license is only for 5 years.

philat98

Motorizzazione say that the licence must be exchanged within 2 years of taking residence in Italy.
Conversione patente estera | mit

BritInParis

That's only for driving licences with no expiry date. If you have a licence with a 10 or 15 year validity period then you can use it until it expires before having to convert to an Italian licence.

Pecora Nera

I am not sure I would wait until the final months, it took 8 months to exchange my licence.
Admittedly they gave me a certificate that allowed me to drive in Italy, but it wasn’t acceptable to Hertz etc when I needed to hire a car in the UK

GeorgeYoung

There is a bit of a grey area about your UK license being required to have a valid address on which, if you're resident in Italy, it can't.

We exchanged ours within about 9 months of moving here, partially because one was close to expiring. It wasn't exactly a smooth process but didn't take that long. The biggest faff was having to get a medical test and, as we both wear glasses, getting a copy of our prescription in an acceptable format. Lots of photos & marche da bollo required too, obviously.

philat98

If the DVLA writes to you then somebody in the UK has to forward the letter. If you loose your licence card DVLA are not going to send a replacement to Italy. Then it gets difficult.

Geordieborn

The GOV.UK site seems quite clear on it! Must have your current UK address and be resident there.... From what I've read however, they could make a fortune on the $
£1000 pound fines if they bothered to enforce it.

Pecora Nera

The local police and carabiniere probable won’t give you much trouble for not changing your licence.

I think the problem starts if there is a serious car accident, regardless of fault.

Then the insurance companies will do everything not to pay out and the police will look more closely at when you should have changed a driving licence

Donna Noble

What's nice about converting your UK licence into an Italian one is when you lose points you get a personalised statement from Rome letting you know your updated situation.

Serrano

My understanding was that, if you commit a 'points' offence when driving on a UK licence, they create a 'virtual account' for you keyed from your UK licence number, from which they deducted the points, and any subsequent ones. If you lost them all, you were then banned from driving in Italy. Can't remember where I got that info from.

Fortunately I never lost any points in the 9 years I drove here on a UK licence (nor in the previous 30 years in the UK)

Unfortunately I have done so since - and can confierm the nice personalised letter. Which raises another point. When I lost my points, it was two weeks less than 2 years on the new licence - and they duly deducted double points because I was a 'neopatentato'. My contact at ACI says that is wrong, but I didn't contest it because I have better things to do with my life and I'm unlikely to have any problem with points (tocca ferro).

However, IF (and it is a big if) it is correct, then presumably all the other regulations for 'neopatentato' would logically apply, e.g. reduced speed limits for the first 3 years, etc. Does anyone else have experience of this?

ETA: I've just had a look at site PATENTE.it, and they say that all the 'neopatentato' rules apply in the case of a conversion of a foreign licence. OMG, as they say. Unfortunately the example they give is for a non-Eu driver, but they do clearly say 'stranieri' on the site. Fortunately my 3 years expired just - 3 days ago so I don't care.

Donna Noble

Weird that you're considered a "neopatente" when you convert but this is true.

In fact, the (OH) transgressor (like you thought it was me! ) had detailed on his statement that after the first couple of years or so (ie after he was no longer a "neopatente", despite the fact he'd been driving since GKW), he had been awarded "bonus" points for good behaviour. So he actually had a total of 28 points credited on his licence.

Then he went and lost a bunch of them by not driving in the correct manner.

GeorgeYoung

I'm sure I asked about this when I insured my Italian car for the first time because there was a question asking "have you had a full license issued in Italy for more than 3 years" or something similar. I hadn't, having only converted mine about 6 months previously. However, IIRC, I was told that my converted license was considered to have been issued when the UK one was.

The idea that you can get bonus points for good behaviour seems like a wonderfully Italian idea!