If you travel to an EU Member State or a country belonging to EEA for short periods of time, you may use your Italian driving licence because, in accordance with the EU Directive 2006/126/EC of December 20, 2006, EU Member States and countries belonging to EEA recognise the driving licences issued by their respective authorities.
Conversely, if you take up your residence in an EU/EEA country, you have three options available:
- to convert your Italian driving licence into an equivalent one from your country of residence (this is an option, not an obligation);
- to keep your own driving licence by having it recognised by the authorities of the State in which you reside (where provided for by local legislation);
- to keep your original driving licence without doing anything about it. In the latter case, however, there may be inconveniences or delays when a duplicate shall be issued due to loss, theft or destruction of the document, since you need to request information from the State that originally issued the driving licence.
In order to request both conversion (which consists in issuing a new driving licence) and recognition, the driving licence shall be in progress of validity.
You may renew your Italian driving licence by applying only to the local authorities: https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/vehicles/driving-licence/driving-licence-renewal/index_en.htm.