What is the minimum age for a category B licence in Italy?

What is the minimum age?

Eighteen for the category B licence, under article 115 of the Codice della Strada and the page of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport on obtaining the category B licence. This is the age that counts for obtaining the licence, meaning passing the practical test, after which the office issues the document (article 121, paragraph 12).

Can a category B licence be obtained at 17?

Not today. At European level a new driving licence directive was approved in 2025 that allows a category B licence at seventeen, with the obligation to drive accompanied by an experienced driver until eighteen. A directive does not apply by itself, though: Italian implementing rules are needed to set exams, authorisations and penalties. As of September 2026 those rules are not in force, and the rule remains eighteen.

The application dates reported in the press do not match each other. Before planning, check announcements from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport rather than news articles.

What can be done at 17 today?

Two things. The first is accompanied driving under article 115 of the Codice della Strada, regulated by ministerial decree no. 213 of 11 November 2011: someone aged seventeen may drive a car with an accompanying driver who meets the requirements, after a driving school programme and an authorisation from the Motorizzazione. It is not a licence and it does not bring forward the category B licence. The detailed requirements, such as the accompanying driver's age and the hours of lessons, are reported differently by different sources and should be checked at the counter or on the Ministry website.

The second is preparing for the theory. Studying before eighteen is always possible. How long before the birthday the licence application can be filed depends on office practice, because the application lasts six months and the foglio rosa twelve: the margin should be asked of the Motorizzazione or the driving school before paying any fees.

Is there an upper age limit?

No. There is no upper limit for obtaining a category B licence. What counts is medical fitness certified by a doctor at the examination required for the application, and compliance with renewal deadlines, which under article 126 of the Codice della Strada get shorter with age: ten years up to fifty, five years between fifty and seventy, three years between seventy and eighty, two years over eighty.

What happens when the process starts at different ages?

Age changes little in the rules and a lot in the timing. Two concrete cases.

A girl in Bergamo turns seventeen in March and wants a category B licence straight away. She cannot get one: the EU directive does not yet apply in Italy. She can consider accompanied driving, study for the theory and file the application when the office accepts it, so that she sits the practical test after her eighteenth birthday.

A man in Livorno obtains his category B licence at forty five. His age brings no particular limits, but for three years he is a new driver just like an eighteen year old: 100 km/h on motorways and 90 km/h on main extra-urban roads, zero blood alcohol and power limits on the vehicle. His licence, obtained before fifty, will have its first expiry according to the table in article 126. If in his first year as a licence holder he drives at 105 km/h on a main extra-urban road, he faces a fine of 165 to 660 euro and a licence suspension of two to eight months (article 117, paragraphs 2 and 5, of the Codice della Strada).

What changes after eighteen?

Nothing in the tests: theory and practical are the same at any age, and in 2025, 60.27 per cent of category B theory tests and 83.82 per cent of practical tests ended in a pass, according to the Ministry. Anyone who obtains the licence is a new driver for three years: the rules are on the page about what new drivers may drive.

Legal source: Articolo 115 del Codice della Strada. The consolidated text of the Codice della Strada is on Normattiva.