Check out what I just got yesterday …
I passed my driving exam! And now I can legally drive (and also ride of any class motorcycle) anywhere in Europe! Woohoo!
I have to say though, that I was feeling rather nervous. Seeing how the two candidates before me were crying and looking sad when they were done didn’t give me much positive feelings. Nevertheless, I trudged ahead and tried to do the best I could.
How the driving exam goes is that your driving instructor will be sitting next to you, and the esaminatore (invigilator) will be sitting behind to observe how you drive. The entire session lasts for about 10 minutes and you’ll be judged accordingly on 4 main tasks.
1. How you drive
The fluidity of how you drive and change gears, looking out for incoming traffic. Slowing down when turning and respecting traffic signs. There are chances that the invigilator tries to trick you and tell you things like turning to the opposite direction on a one-way road (which is an instant failure) Thank goodness I didn’t had a jerk of an invigilator.
2. Repartenza in salita
You’ll be lead to a slope and then stopped. While on the slope, signal left, blind spot check and depart without falling back.
3. Inversione in 3 tempi
Manoeuvre and reverse the car in 3 moves to get to the opposite direction.
4. Parcheggio
And finally parallel parking. The invigilator asked me to park two times in different areas just to see if I’m fine for both. I used to have issues with this because sometimes I’d have the car jut out about halfway. But it’s a matter of practice.
The good thing about learning to drive in Italy is that as long as you have a foglio rosa, a P sign and a suitable car (as well as a person who has 10 years driving experience accompanying you) you can practice driving in the neighbourhood, and spend less at the driving school.
And that’s about it.
I thought that I failed for sure when departing from the slope, I forgot to signal to the left. And my instructor starting complaining loudly, “PERCHÉ! PERCHÉ! Tre volte ti ho detto a lezione!”
And by that time, I’ve lost my mood already and just carried on like I’d normally do during regular lessons. Heck care it all. So at the end of the exam, when my instructor said, “Grazie eh!” I was very surprised. Why is he thanking me? Being sarcastic or what? I looked behind me to the invigilator who was fiddling with the patente and I knew that I passed and I gave out a yelp and ran all the way to Cart’s office to tell him the good news in person.
Finally I’ve got a driving license. And now that I’m done with that, I can just move forward. One step closer to getting my dream car!
So I can do this!
Sexeh!
Yay for you! Now you can go cruising on the Italian roads!
Woohoo! It’ll still take a while for me to get used to Italian roads on my own though I think. They are very scary!!!
I knew you could do it!!! Im so proud of you!! 😀
Thank you! If only I was rich and could get a car now! Then we can drive around Rome! Whee!
Congrats to you!!! I don’t know if i’ll ever have the courage to drive on Italian roads…and most if not all, are manual transmission! 😐
It’s still quite scary, but it’s a matter of getting used to. That goes for manual cars too! The important thing is to be safe and follow the rules 🙂
Congrats! But please, keep your eyes wide open while shacking your hair in the J-LO way:-)))
LOL! Don’t worry, I won’t keep them shut! What a dangerous thing to do!
Nice.
The second column has a date that is 10 years after your pass date. So you need to retake the driving exam once every decade?
For your driver’s license, if you are under 50 years old and when you pass, it’s valid for 10 years. After 10 years, you go for a medical health check by an authorised doctor and then your license will be renewed.
Once you turn 50 years old, the license will be valid for 5 years. And when you turn 70, the license will be valid for 3 years.
Yayyyyy! Congrats! 😀
YAY! I’ll take you to Sentosa! (If I have a car that is .. hahaha)