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Community question

How to obtain a driver's license in Italy?

Theme: Life in Italy · from messages of 2022-2026

In short

To obtain a driver's license in Italy, you need to exchange your rights within a year after obtaining residency.

What the chats answered

After obtaining residency in Italy, you have a year to exchange your driver's license for an Italian one. If you interrupt your stay, the countdown starts over.

Italy does not convert Russian licenses, so you need to pass an exam. In some cases, an international driver's license may be required.

Renting a car with Russian licenses may be challenging. Some companies require an international license, while others may accept only the national one.

When checking the driver's license, they may require a visa or other documents confirming your legal stay in the country.

Built from 44 similar questions and 11 answers across 3 chats; retold and anonymised, disagreements kept as a spread of opinions.

Where to verify

The current procedure is set by your comune or the office running the service; the answers above are community experience from different years. Short curated answers on the theme - FAQ: Life in Italy.

Related questions

This retells what chat members wrote; it is not official information and not legal advice.