Long term car rental/lease in italy/Car purchases for Italian citizens who are not residents.

I have never done it also because my longest rental has been 5 weeks (through AutoEurope) and have not bothered to check to possibility of splitting the rental for a lower price. However I will address your question in the title regarding Italian citizens living abroad who want to purchase and register their car in Italy to use it when they travel there on vacation.

This matter is regulated by art 134 bis of the vehicle code (codice della strada). If you are an Italian citizen registered at the AIRE (Anagrafe Italiani Residenti all’Estero) at your local consulate, you can purchase and register your car in Italy provided you elect a domicile c/o an address of physical person living in Italy (a friend or relative for example) or c/o a Studio di Consulenze Automobilistiche, basically an agency that specializes in these automobile bureaucratic things (many driving school do). Obviously you can still leave your car parked wherever, like in the garage of the apartment you decide to buy. I suggest you buy an apartment with a garage where you can leave your car while away.

You can Google “Studio …(see above)” for the city of your choice and there will be plenty in the online Pagine Gialle (yellow pages). I’ve read in some forums (I’m interested in that option when I retire in a few years) that the only difficulty is finding insurance companies willing to insure a foreign residents, as many major companies don’t. Several online insurance companies do however. If you do soon, let me know how it works.

The leases are through French companies. Picking up and/or dropping off outside of France incurs extra charges. One way to avoid this would be to have Nice be the location you use, because it’s not very far from the Italian border. You don’t say what part of Italy you are focused on. I’ve been told that if you get into an accident or have car trouble it is up to you to deal with it because it’s your car. Of course it is fully insured, but if it’s in the shop for something you will be inconvenienced. I would clarify this with the individual company and AutoEurope.

More than likely, we will be in Abruzzo so Nice pickup is not practical. But I can get a reasonable lease price at MXP or NAP.

see your other post where I wrote about a monthly or longer subscription rental program for residents through Drivalia. They have a variety of plans at better prices and with more flexibility than the French leasing programs. I've used them for three years now with no issues. The program includes all regular maintenance and insurance, and you can cancel with a month's notice so no need to store a car and worry about mice chewing the wires, tires going flat and other issues with un-driven cars.

But don't forget you will need an Italian driver's license after a year of claiming residency, whether you live here full time or not. And then you will need an Italian credit card since the subscription program specifies country of credit card must equal country of driver's license. So it might get tricky down the road, but it's a good option for the first few years while you figure out how much you will be here.

Or, just buy a second-hand Fiat Panda like everyone else in Abruzzo drives and don't worry about it. They're cheap and replaceable.

Thanks. I will research the leasing company. Ideally I WOULD buy a secondhand Panda, that would be perfect. The problem is that I am not permitted to buy a car until such time as I declare residency and am awarded such. My immediate need is to have long term transportation until I should decide that residency is the right choice for me/us. The long term lease looks like the most viable path right now.

Well, for some reason, Drivalia will not let me obtain a price for anything that is longer than 30 days on their website. And those rates are quite high, 900+ euros for the month. Currently, I am renting 30 days stretches at rates of 400-500 euros per month. Starting to look like my only option is to drive to an airport and swap out cars every 30 days.

You can buy and register a car as a non resident as long as you are an Italian citizen registered at the AIRE (Registry of Italians Living Abroad) at your local consulate, which is a mandatory requirement for Italians living abroad.

This is terrific information. THANK YOU! The attorney that I consulted with on citizenship could not tell me whether this was possible. They said they had no idea whether it was possible. Being able to purchase and register/insure a vehicle was a large part of the consideration of getting my citizenship. So much for knowledgeable attorneys.
I am not really ready to commit to permanently residing in Italy as I am not crazy about their EU ties and Meloni's failure to fulfill her promises. So, living there for 5-6 months a year would enable me to test the waters and if not suitable, bug out. Without transportation this would be impossible as I would like to live/stay in a rural area in Abruzzo. An owned vehicle is essential. Thank you again.