Driving a UK-registered car in Italy: the three-month rule, what nationalising it costs, and what to do instead

How long can I keep it on UK plates?

It depends on whether you are resident in Italy. From December 2018 the "decreto sicurezza" (decree-law 113/2018) banned anyone resident in Italy for more than 60 days from driving a foreign-registered car, with fines of €712 to €2,848, withdrawal of the documents and confiscation if the car wasn't registered in Italy or exported within 180 days. After an EU Court of Justice ruling in December 2021, law 238/2021 rewrote the rule as article 93-bis of the highway code, in force since February 2022. Now a foreign-registered car owned by someone who has taken up residence in Italy (residenza anagrafica) may be driven only if it is registered in Italy within three months of acquiring residence. After that the owner faces a fine of €400 to €1,600: the police withdraw the registration document, order the car off the road and have it taken to a storage yard. You can ask to drive it out of Italy by the shortest route; if within 30 days of the offence it is neither registered in Italy nor taken out, it is confiscated. A resident who drives a foreign-registered car belonging to someone else must carry a signed, dated document from the owner, and use of more than 30 days in a calendar year must be entered in the register of foreign vehicles (REVE) at the PRA; the fines there run from €250 to €1,000, and from €712 to €3,558 for driving without the entry. Italians registered with AIRE count as resident abroad: the three months start when you register as resident in an Italian comune again. If your home is still in the UK, for example with a holiday home in Tuscany, Italian traffic law allows a foreign-registered car for up to one year. On the UK side, the DVLA treats a car kept abroad for more than 12 months as permanently exported, and UK road tax needs a valid MOT and insurance.

Can a right-hand-drive car be registered?

Yes. Right-hand-drive cars can be registered in Italy. Circular 07 of 6 October 2023 from the transport ministry's north-west directorate (DGT Nord-Ovest) sets out what the visita e prova checks on a car built for driving on the left: the dipped headlamps must be convertible and correctly adjusted for driving on the right, or replaced with right-traffic units; the rear fog lamp must be in the centre or on the left; the car needs two exterior mirrors; and the speedometer must read in km/h, which most UK cars already do alongside mph. Italian buyers pay noticeably less for a car with the steering wheel on the right.

What registering it involves

1. Prepare the papers: the original V5C, apostilled, with a sworn Italian translation, and the manufacturer's technical data sheet (scheda dati tecnici) confirming the car meets the EU rules for first registration in Italy. Italians returning for good can ask the consulate for a repatriation declaration; some Motorizzazione offices, such as Florence, then waive the data sheet.
2. Apply to the Motorizzazione (Ufficio Motorizzazione Civile) for nationalisation and book the inspection and road test (visita e prova, also called collaudo), which is compulsory for a car from outside the EU. Have the headlamps converted first.
3. Registration: the Documento Unico, Italian plates and the IPT, paid through the PRA, usually via an agenzia pratiche auto.
4. Italian motor insurance (RC auto), then the bollo every year and a revisione every two years.

What it costs

• IPT (imposta provinciale di trascrizione): €150.81 up to 53 kW; above that, about €3.51 for every kW of the car's power, plus a provincial surcharge of up to 30%, which most provinces apply. A 100 kW car pays about €456.
• Fixed fees of about €100 (€27 to the ACI, €10.20 to the Motorizzazione, €32 stamp duty and €32 for the Documento Unico), plus plates, sworn translations, the apostille and any agency fee.
• No ecotassa: it applied to imported used cars only from March 2019 to the end of 2021.
• Example: 2018 VW Golf 1.5 TSI, 96 kW. IPT about €440: about €540 with the fixed fees.
• Example: 2018 Range Rover Sport SDV6, 225 kW. IPT about €1,030: about €1,130 with the fixed fees.
• Every year after that, the bollo: for Euro 4–6 cars €2.58 per kW up to 100 kW and €3.87 for each kW above (some regions, including Lazio, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, charge more), so about €250 for the Golf and €740 for the Range Rover. Cars above 185 kW also pay superbollo of €20 per extra kW, reduced to 60% after 5 years: about €480 a year for the Range Rover.
• A revisione every two years: about €79 at a private test centre.

The alternative: sell it back to the UK

The obvious comparison is driving it back to the UK yourself. From Milan it is more than 1,000 km to Calais, and from Tuscany, Rome or the south a good deal more: two long days at the wheel, plus fuel, motorway tolls, the Channel crossing, the journey back and then the job of selling the car in the UK. It only works while the MOT and UK insurance are valid, and once you are past the three-month deadline the drive to the border is itself use of a car that should already be on Italian plates. We collect it free from your address on a transporter, handle the export paperwork, and pay you in pounds sterling (£) by bank transfer on collection day.

Common questions

Rules, rates and thresholds change. This guide is a general summary as of October 2026, not legal or tax advice — check the current position with the registration authority before relying on it.

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