517 UK car in Italy

Haven't tried, but its going to be much harder to drive on the "wrong" side of the road; i.e. you will be on the wrong side of the car to oncoming trafic and find it harder to judge distances.

I had never driven on the right before I had to hire a car in Italy last year, but found it a breeze as the design of the car meant that it was natural to be on the right side of the road. Would have been a nightmare otherwise, I think.

Driving a UK cr in Europe is relatively easy.

Insuring it is not - see previous threads

I have driven my UK vehicle here for a year now with no problems. Most people seem to adjust very quickly.

I agree that insurance is the sticking point and that this has been discussed in other threads. There seem to be 2 or 3 solutions. I have also posted about registering a car in Italy if you plan to stay for more than a year.

When we lived in Rome we had our UK car with us. We soon got used to driving on the 'wrong side' but were always wary of overtaking so generally didn't on anything other than dual carriageways/motorways! The standard of driving in Rome is not good, not as bad as Naples but definitely worse than many other areas - accidents were a common occurance so if you are protective of your car it is best left at home. Fully comp. insurance would be astronomical (insurance has been covered in many other threads). Another point to consider is parking where you live, if in a flat that offers parking in an underground garage it can be incredibly tight so only suited to small cars. Many friends had to leave their cars outside as the spaces or turns were too tight - I don't know whether this would apply but is certainly a consideration if you have a car larger than a small estate.
Rome is a wonderful place to live and explore - you can hardly fail to enjoy it!
Regards
Anne2

[QUOTE=moonraker6x]Ive just got a job in Rome for Sept and am thinking of bringing my UK car out. Cant really afford to sell it as Im in a finance deal and likely to lose alot.
Does anyone have any advice about driving a UK car in Italy?[/QUOTE]

Physically driving the car isn't too much of a problem, depending on the car. I used to have a long, low sports saloon which we drove regularly to Italy. The godo points were that it was designed for the long distance drive, it was very comfortable, and simply ate up the miles. Sadly it was also a nightmare being so low that I couldn't see to overtake and I had to get the passenger to look for me, which was nerve wracking. It made negotiatiing Rome very difficult. OTOH since Italians ave a passion for cars, it guaranteed us good rooms in Hotels and lots of conversation on the streets at filling stations and even got us an introduction to the mayor of San Gimingnano (hello this English man is staying at my hotel he has a nice car).

Recently because we have a farm and it's difficult to cross the Alps, Apennines and make it up a mountain track in anything too low slung we got a big 4x4. This is much, much easier to drive in Italy, particularly Rome than a lower car. You can see over the traffic, it makes overtaking easy and its physical size makes driving on the autostrada less intimidating. It doesn't attract nice comments from Italians and never will because it looks like a shed on four wheels.

Insurance can be arranged in the UK by a specialist broker, we use a company called Footman James who provided insurance packages for drivers who need slightly different insurance to normal cover and we are insured for as long as we need to stay in Italy, plus breakdown all over Europe and legal cover. This costs us about £200 more than a UK only policy without the breakdown cover.

[FONT=Arial]We drive to Southern Italy every winter and spend 4 months there. Our insurance is with Ford Insure (although we have a Rover now) We are covered for european driving which also includes RAC cover. Last year our water pump broke and we were told at a local garage that as our car was a right hand drive they would have to send to Germany for a replacement (at least a month!) We contacted our insurance and they not only located one, they had it delivered to the garage, and then sent me am SMS to inform me of its arrival. Less than a week, and we paid only for the water pump! There is no problem driving a right hand car. If you need to overtake just pull back a little to see the oncoming vehicles. City driving especially in Italy is always mind blowing and it matters not where you sit in the car![/FONT]