English registered car in Italy

[Italy4me]

Hi Billy & Sheila,

I've started a new thread to answer your question about our car in Italy in case others are interested and so that the subject is easier to find for anyone looking for similar info.

The need to be resident to be able to own a car in Italy is a real pain (and out of line with the majority of Europe, I believe).

Because our car is British registered (altho it is lhd) we will need to bring it back for an MOT each summer. We have it insured in the UK and have a policy that offers comprehensive cover even whilst it is abroad (not all insurers offer this or it may be time-limited we discovered when we started looking around) and as long as we have the relevant MOT and insurance documentation the Road Tax works just as normal (although we will need to be organised in making sure we time it right to buy the road tax as we will have to do it in the UK).
I think it is possible to get it MOT'd (or the equivalent) in Italy but if you have a car over there longer than 12 months I believe there is a requirement to then transfer it onto Italian plates. This may be something we take a look at later if we get residency but I think the cost of this is quite hefty and I'm not sure the car is worth it.

We aren't too concerned about taking it backwards and forwards as we managed to stuff it full of heavy/fragile things that we wouldn't have been able to carry by plane on the way over and hope to bring back a serious amount of wine etc on the return trip 8-)

Our house in Italy is only 2 km from the main road (but it seems almost vertical in places) so we couldn't really manage without a car. We are hoping to spend some long periods there and the cost of carhire would get completely ridiculous so we are hoping our little car will pay its way over the longer term - even taking into account the yearly return to England.

The journey itself was very interesting - especially the changing countryside as we travelled through France, Switzerland & Italy. We had decided to make the journey part of the holiday and booked two stopovers (Reims and Reggio Emilia) which split the trip into equal parts in terms of journey time.
We arrived in Reims and Reggio Emilia in time to have a wander about and a meal - and on the third night ate in Scalea with Tony, Gayle, David & Mel and slept in our new Italian house for the first time!

Brian did all of the driving and says that the journey was much better than he expected.
I have read of other folk doing a non stop journey from the uk and taking 27 hours but whilst we were keen to get there we decided it would be more enjoyable to take it steady.

We had no hold-ups on the way and everything was very straightforward but we may just have been lucky.

Hope this is useful to you, if you have any other questions just give us a shout!
Best wishes, Lesley & Brian