In Pursuit of My Italian Driver's License

One might find it baffling that in the almost twelve years that we have lived in Italy, never once have I sat behind the wheel of a car to drive here. The excuses were obvious in our first term: with three little ones that meant delayed language acquisition; living in a city build on a hill with narrow streets and driving stick shift--um, no thank you; one car and one driver was sufficient for our family life and ministry at the time; it costs too much [about 1,000 euro] and honestly I was just plain scared to drive here. However, as the years have passed, our kids have grown, I have gained more confidence in the language, our need for two drivers in the household is very much needed, especially with Jonathan's health being so unstable these past few years, and since we now live in a more tranquil city I am not as scared as I once was.

In March of last year I started to attend driving school receiving special permission from the school to do a partial registration. That meant that I could attend classes 2 times a week and start to get a handle on a whole new world of vocabulary before heading off to the US for the summer. I had great intentions of studying over the summer, but instead I got a whole lot of practice driving being the sole driver for our family all summer. When we got back in September I resumed my regular attendance in class, completing my official registration in October. That is when my 6 month clock started to tick in which time I need to have obtained my license or else be forced to pay every fee twice over to start the process over!

My instructor was really good and made class interesting

The first phase of passing the theory exam is by far the toughest. No special consideration is given to non-native speakers or to those who already possess a drivers license from another country, so you just have to buck up and study hard like every other Italian. Rules of the road, signs, first aid administration, insurance intricacies, license specifications, number of points incurred against your license for various road violations, motorcycles including clothing and motor details, trailers, all parts of the car including the motor, brake system, suspension etc., and the list goes on and on and on.

List of license categories. Eight of these needed to be known in detail including cylinders and kilowatts permitted for each category of motos, motorcycles and quads. 

Who goes first?

It isn't just the information that is technical, it is the way in which the test questions are worded. They are designed to trip you up on purpose, which is all the more of a challenge for foreigners. The positive thing is that you have access to all the possible 8,000 test questions. The down side is that you have to work through 200 sample quizzes of 40 questions each to see them all. You are only allowed to miss 4 out of 40! I think I got through about 120 in the book and some on the computer.

When I started to consistently pass more than fail, I signed up to take the exam. You get three attempts to pass and even though I was not completely confident I figured I was close enough for my first try. Remember the clock is ticking?

The test is administered at the "Motorizzazione Civile" in Torino. After meeting our instructors at 9am they drove eight students from our school to the testing site. We had to wait nearly two hours for our testing slot along with about 40 other students. It was a miserable wait of anticipation. I had been up since 4:45am since I couldn't sleep so my brain was already full and swirling from studying since the wee hours of the day. Finally, we were called in and given 30 minutes to answer 40 questions. I took my time and was done in about 20 minutes. I felt fairly confident when leaving and only felt uncertain about maybe two answers. But still...you never know.

The results were printed and posted on a bulletin board. I had to wait for the mass of people to clear before I could find my name and finally see that I had passed! What a relief to pass and a bonus to accomplish on my first attempt! Hallelujah! So thankful for God getting me through this phase.

So what is next?

Now I get my driver's permit and will have to complete 6 hours of drivers training before I will be permitted to take the final driving exam. I'll post when I have license in hand!

*Driving back to Caselle, I see that my instructor is not wearing his seatbelt. He is excluded from being belted in only when he is in the passenger seat with a student driving. So basically one works their butt off to obtain their license only to earn the right to do and drive how they want. Viva Italia!