From 1 July young people, from 14 18 years old, must have a licence (or patentino) to drive a motorino or a micro car, even the lowest powered ones. 702,500 out of 1,500,000 students have applied to take the necessary course to obtain the licence, which are being held free in middle and high schools, but only 34,000 licences have been issued so far.

To avoid the problem of having no licence large numbers of young people are turning to private driving schools, where a course of 12 hours of obligatory lessons costs 150

After the deadline of 1 July any young person found riding or driving a motorino or micro car without the necessary licence is likely to be fined 516 and the vehicle will be confiscated for 60 days, for second offenders the fine rises to 2,065