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Gia-Gina Across the Pond

So I've decided to follow my husband to his native Italy. Follow our adventures as we eat, drink, travel, adapt to and explore this remarkable country. Part food blog, part photo blog but mostly my rants and raves. After our two years in Italy, we relocated across the Atlantic "pond" and are back in the States.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Strike One-Italian Drivers License

Warning: Angry and Disappointed post (I am mostly angry and disappointed in myself.)

Yesterday I failed my first attempt at the oral theory exam for my Italian driver’s license. I chose to take the oral examination versus the written one because I believed it would be easier. Sharon passed the oral exam on her first try; I was hoping to do the same; no luck this time.

The Italian DMV in Torino is understaffed and so one examiner gives the oral exams to two candidates at a time. I was given an appointment time of 8 a.m., when I got to the DMV it wasn’t even open. There was a sign stating that the gates opened at 8:30 a.m. and by chance someone came around at 8:15 let us all in. I was the first name called, after me was a young man from Romania who was to be my co-examinee. He was under the instruction of a driving school and I was not. With Demetrio helping me, I was hoping not to have to enroll in a driving school and spend the money.

The exam started with the examiner showing us a card with various traffic scenarios. We had to decide on the order of precedence that each car was to take at an intersection. I got three of the answers wrong during this part of the exam and I was told I had to go; I had failed. I am not sure how many were questions I was going to be asked. I had studied street signs, road signs and other signs I might encounter on the highway, rules of the road and basic first aid; but never got to any questions about those topics. The examiner told me that I could take the test again in one month and one day’s time. Therefore, I went upstairs to try to book my next appointment but they told me that they were very short of examiners at the time and I would not be able to book my next oral exam. A bit frustrated, I left with my head down. I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach.

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5 Comments:

At 2:43 PM, Blogger Sara said...

That sucks. I could be worse. You could've hit a car on your first driving test.

Try and remember the questions you got wrong and go over those questions with D, and some related ones too. You'll get it eventually.

 
At 1:11 AM, Blogger Michellanea said...

I'm very sorry. It's strange that they started with the precedenze. That was the last thing on the page when I took the test. I did suck it up and do driving school and that was one of the things they covered the most. But many people pass the test without driving school. I suggest cutting and pasting all the little symbols onto 3x5 cards for use as flash cards (yes, a lot of cutting and pasting but it works)

 
At 9:23 AM, Blogger Jennifer said...

I am so sorry! That's awful!

I am also married to an Italian and we live in Italy with our young son. I got my Italian licence last year. It was not easy. I enrolled in a school but skipped the classes. The driving school gave me a book to read and a workbook full of practice quizzes. If you don't have those, email me at jeninitaly at gmail dot com and I will send you mine. I've written in them a little bit, but you will still be able to use them and they help tremendously. When I first started doing the practice quizzes I would fail every single one miserably. I would get half of the questions wrong. It was so frustrating that I cried. But after a few weeks I was doing better and eventually could do almost all of them with only one or two wrong answers.

Email if you're interested. The material really does help a lot. Especially with the yield rules. I had a lot of trouble with those too.

 
At 10:05 AM, Blogger Shelley - At Home in Rome said...

Sorry about this, what a pain. Of course you know all about my driving license fiasco, right? Everyone has a story. It's a joke. I went to the school just to make my life easier and did the classes too. They know the examiners, who is tough and who isn't, and give you a good idea of what to study, which helps. But in the end, it's a question of luck as to which examiner you end up with, etc.

In bocca al lupo! Remember that in Italy almost nothing ever gets done on the first try!!

 
At 8:20 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This Italian cretino tried to run me over (this will take you to a page with the license plate and car description, please help to spread the word):
SPZ BA089DL, BA 089 DL, BA 089DL

 

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