The Italian Vehicle Registration Pain in our Butt Process!

How to Register and Plate your vehicle in Italy- Thanks BEKI for reminding me to Blog about this VERY important Topic.  It's mostly for Military families or People moving to Italy that are bringing a vehicle (POV).

First of all- SHIP YOUR CAR (POV) ASAP so it arrives when you do or even BEFORE you arrive!  Being in a foreign country relying on public transportation is a BIATCH!  When your vehicle leaves the port to be shipped to Italy you must have your license plates off and in the trunk.  You must have at least American Insurance but it's suggested that you have International Insurance & the title or a letter from the lending agency allowing you to take it over seas.  Your american insurance won't cover it out of the US so you need to cancel it and start your International Insurance when you drop your car at the port (it's EXPENSIVE, $200/mo international insurance for our 2004 Kia Rio).  When you cancel the American insurance the DMV sends you a nasty letter saying you owe $250 because you let your insurance laps and didn't turn in your plates (which you can't turn in until you get to Italy, pick up your car & remove them from your trunk & mail them back to the States).

When the car arrives in Italy it's a two day process to pick it up. First get your Italian Driver's license. After you have that you have to go to the Torry Vehicle place on the bus or hitch a ride.  First you have to get your license plate number which they will give at the Torry place.  Next, leave Torry and go to a phone.  Call your insurance company and tell them you need the yellow & white window proof of insurance card.  They will overnight it to the BMV place across from the church gate off Camp Ederle which you can walk to.  Day 2- Go pick up your yellow & white window insurance card from BMW place & go back to Torry Vehicle place.  There, you will have to pay $20 and 5 Euro to have the vehicle registered & to get International plates.  Next you will go next door to the Vehicle Processing Center and inspect the vehicle of damage that happened in transit.  Finally you get possession of the vehicle!  You must then remove all American decals/bumper stickers including Government decals & post stickers (per Army regs), attach your new plates, and place the yellow/white proof of insurance in the sticky envelope and stick it to the passenger side of your windshield.

Yay! Now you can drive the vehicle but do not pass GO- do not collect $200.  Instead, drive directly to the vehicle inspection place on Camp Ederle.  Next, you will fail the inspection because of the back/parking brake (oh yes, this will happen to most of you, more about THAT later).  When you fail you need to drive the vehicle to the Car Care center on post and see if they can fit you in that day.  Otherwise, you have 30 days to make an appointment and get the brakes inspected or your gas card will be REVOKED! (Sorry I'm not paying $8.80/gallon of gas so we had this appointment scheduled immediately).  Tell the Car Care center you need a brake inspection because it failed the initial inspection.  That was a $28 expense for us. . .
Want to avoid the brake failure and having to pay the $28?  Either have BRAND SPANKIN' NEW brakes or before you arrive at the Inspection place on post drive with the Emergency Brake slightly on so you warm up the back/parking brakes.  Not enough to make them smell!  The straight away before you drive into the main gate is a great place to do this because you are going a steady speed.  This will present a better reading to the brake inspection machine which is a piece of POOP & reads incorrectly 99 % of the time.  We know this because when we took the vehicle to the Car Center & the repair man knew why we were there & told us how to prevent it next time.  This was AFTER he inspected our brakes which were at 70% BTW and after he collected the $28!

If you actually have bad brakes they will have to order the parts (there is no stock) so expect another few days to wait on that.  Once brakes are fixed or you have the paperwork that says you paid the 28 unnecessary dollars and your brakes are FINE take the paperwork to the Vehicle Inspection Place in Torry and then you are DONE! The vehicle is registered, licensed, insured, and ready to be driven legally!