Umbria, Lazio and Tuscany
Many people ask about buying a car in Italy and keeping for family and friends to use while they are on holiday. As things currently stand you cannot buy a car in Italy unless you have residenza (a residency permit). You might be able to persuade a friend to buy it for you and give him the money, but it would be in his name and any problems would be directed at him. I, for one, would not do that. The alternative, other than hiring, is to bring a car over. The problem with that is that you cannot get it MOTd on English plates. You have to take it back to England each year, assuming it is old enough to warrant an MOT, and probably what you would be looking for would be old enough! I don't know if you can buy one in, say, Germany and bring it here. That would not be so far to go for the annual MOT, and Germany may be like Italy with bi-annual MOTs which would be even better. More information will follow.
A lot of people are shocked at the way Italian drivers drive so close to one another on the motorway. I always find it a surprise to look in my rear view mirror and see the colour of the driver's eyes. Whilst I don't condone tail-gating I would like to point out that it may not be as dangerous as it appears. If the car in front has to stop quickly and the driver behind doesn't notice the impact from the car behind will not be huge - they are both travelling at the same speed and the front car will not have slowed very much before the one behind hits it. If the gap is much wider and the same thing happens then the front car will have slowed much and the impact will be much greater.
Italian drivers don't look for a parking place, they look for a place to park. They are astonishingly creative in finding a space too. We had a party to which we invited about equal numbers of English and Italian friends. Naturally, the English turned up on time and took all the parking spaces around our house and across the road. The last English person spent about ten minutes trying to find a space. Then our Italian friends turned up and invented parking spaces all over the place; in the vineyard, on the grass verges, in fact we could have invited another twenty of them!
Give your (Italian) insurance company at least three months notice of cancelling an insurance policy. They have a nasty habit of charging you for up to two years of future payments if you don't.
The Carabinieri (military police), the Polizia (state police) and even the Guardia di Finanzia (financial police) have a habit of stopping cars for no reason and checking their documents. Always carry your passport or residency permit, driving licence, ownership certificate in the car at all times. One guy has a plastic baton with a red dot on it, which means 'STOP' and the other carries a machine gun and wears a bullet proof vest. You stop!
If you get stopped by the police for a spot check, make it obvious that you are a foreigner. Ensure you are not speeding; that all your documents are in order; that you are not on the mobile phone; that your seat belt is on; that you are not smoking; there are no dents in the bodywork; and that your three-year-old is not sitting on your lap steering the car. Look in the mirror, indicate and pull over. Park neatly off the road. Get out of the car and greet the police officer politely. Admire his uniform, machine gun and bullet-proof vest. Speak very poor Italian and apologise profusely but not in a patronising way. When he waves you on, drive off with a very self-satisfied smile on your face.
Italian drivers have a habit of coming up to a main road and stopping about one metre out into the road, so that they can see if anything is coming. Often this is a little too late! If you see a side turning slow down and give it a wide berth!
The rules at Italian roundabouts are many and various. Excercise great care as sometimes 'joiners' have right of way over those already on it, sometimes it's the other way round, and often there are no markings and you just have to take your chances!
Always go anti-clockwise round a roundabout. You may meet a car coming the other way, but it is far less likely.
When an Italian driver flashes his headlights it doesn't mean 'after you' as it does in other countries. It means 'get out of the way I'm coming through'.
In Italy the black road markings outnumber the white ones. It is usually best to pay more attention to them too as they indicate a dangerous spot.
If you are in the outside lane of the motorway cars wanting to overtake you will first come up close behind you indicating that they want to pass. Then they will put their left indicator on. Next they will flash their headlights at you and finally they will blow their horn. When turning right use your right indicator.
When turning right use your right indicator, when turning left use your left indicator and always indicate when overtaking. You will confuse the hell out of Italian drivers but it's great fun!
The best advice we can give you is to expect the unexpected. If you see a car pulling up at a side road expect it to pull out at least a metre before stopping, or even looking in your direction. Beware the empty car. The driver may be picking up his mobile phone off the floor and swerve in front of you.
Remember: Anyone driving slower than you is an idiot. Anyone driving faster than you is a maniac.