Drive without IDP at your own risk

Roberto, did you have some personal experience with this being enforced?

Roberto, thank you for posting this information. I would say it's valuable to anyone residing outside of Italy planning to drive a car there. I imagine other countries outside of the US have the same or very similar requirements.It's so easy to get that IDP and the cost is negligible. That's a stiff fine with which to be gambling!

its like $30 at a AAA office ...why not just get it

Less, I believe. I paid $15 in 2015, and that's the figure I saw on this year's form, but someone posted recently that the price has been raised to $20.

Roberto,

Thanks for posting this important information, as it provides a very solid reason why people should always get an I.D.P. if planning to drive in Italy. The old excuse of "I've driven in Italy for xx years and have never been asked to produce one" will be no consolation if some hapless driver gets nicked with a €1600 fine!

I don't always know if I'll be driving on visits to Europe, but I always renew my I.D.P. every year ("better safe than sorry").

I paid close to $30 for an IDP at AAA, because you have to pay for the photos too. You could go somewhere else and get the photos a little cheaper, maybe, but not worth chasing around to save $3.

I have not had a personal experience with the fine being levied on me, because I've always had the IDP while driving overseas. I was pulled over by the Carabinieri only once while visiting since I moved to the US and they let me go as soon as they saw I was an "America tourist" without even checking me. I produced my IDP, California DL, and my US passport, and of course pretended to speak broken Italian with a heavy American accent on that occasion. It worked. They thought I was a 2nd or 3rd generation Italian American and let me go without even checking the documents. Not sure it would have worked had I spoken to them in Italian with my heavy Florentine accent. Italian police and carabinieri are generally more lenient with foreign tourists, as long as you apologize profusely and don't act like the proverbial "ugly" jerk foreigner.

When I was living in Italy in my youth I got pulled over with my motorbike, chased at high speed, and fined so many times that I can't even count. Some chases I got away with were worthy of a Hollywood stunt. Every Italian kid has done that in their lifetime. If the Italian police used the methods used by police in America, I would have been shot several times to say the least (and so would have all my friends at the time).

Frankly, since the cost (and time) to get an IDP is so insignificant, I wouldn't take the risk of traveling without one. I'm too old now for running away from the Carabinieri.

If you are a member of AAA, the photos are free. I paid $15 earlier this year.

Roberto,
Do you need one for a Vespa? I am going to be riding one in the Tuscan countryside and while the tour says I don't need one I want to be sure. Thanks

Does the tour say you don't need a driving license?

If what you are driving/riding requires a driving license, an IDP is also required for non-EU drivers/riders.

In other words - yes.

And I was just contemplating whether I "chance" it and bring my old IDP. It will expire the day I arrive in Italy. I guess I'll be renewing it. Thanks for the nudge!

Doesn't an expired IDP still qualify as an official translation?

Love this from the aaa website:
An IDP gives you peace of mind while you're out exploring the world - even if you're not planning to drive!

try it and see...

and let us know

Doesn't my expired driver's license still prove I know how to drive?

This is one I have never understood, as the cost of the IDP is so low compared to the potential for a very unpleasant situation while on vacation. Just get the IDP and be done with it.

I'm not going to try it because I do NOT go on vacation to stress out about parking issues or credit cards accepted at unmanned toll booths or narrow roads or camera fines or pointless driving laws like requirements to carry an IDP (which is a generic translation composite of terms and words that might be used on one of the 60+ state, district, territory, or tribal driving licenses issued in the US and not really a translation, has anyone else puzzled over one?) ad nauseum.

Doesn't an expired IDP still qualify as an official translation?

Maybe. However the last sentence of art. 135 paragraph 1 specifies that both your home driver's license and the IDP must be current and valid (in corso di validita'), i.e. not expired.

The full article 135 the full Motor Vehicle Code) in Italian is here in the website of the Italian Automobile Club (the equivalent of the AAA). Mine was just an approximate translation:

http://www.aci.it/i-servizi/normative/codice-della-strada/titolo-iv-guida-dei-veicoli-e-conduzione-degli-animali/art-135-circolazione-con-patenti-di-guida-rilasciate-da-stati-esteri.html