cordelli

It was required when we rented in Italy last month.

It serves only one purpose. To translate the information on your driver's license into other languages so that people who don't read the language your license is in a way to get the information off of it.

JoeW

Really. Thats interesting. As I said, I even changed mine to a Norwegian license, and bypassed all the required courses (how to secure cargo on a trailer etc.....) without it. I know for sure an IDL is not required for Americans in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and I was not aware that it was different in Italy. All DLs are on an EU standard in Europe now, so I simply thought the rules about foreign DLs was the same...

But I haven't been in an accident in Italy, thank God, so I believe Opushomes.

jwrhn

Many countries allow you to drive for 90 days or so on your home countries drivers permit and then require you get apply for a permit there. The information is usually available on your country of destinations tourism website

Jay71

When researching our trip to France and Italy this year, we weren't going to get an IDL until we came across some driving info on the Slowtrav site. It seemed to indicate that you'd likely need one if you get stopped in Italy but less so in France. We picked one up for our trip but never have to use it. We weren't stopped by the cops and the Hertz rental places didn't bother to look at it.

If I had to do it again, I'd probably get one if I drove in Italy again. The driving out there is pretty hectic so I'd think the odds of me encountering a situation where I'd need to show it would be higher than other countries. Plus, we seemed to run into such wacky rules and inconsistent rules out there (not necessarily driving related), I wouldn't doubt that we could get seriously nailed for not having one.

[And yes, as previous posters have mentioned, IDL not valid without your regular driver's license so it's value alone as a piece of ID is pretty limited.]