Licence Suspension in Italy: Ritiro, Sospensione, and Revoca Explained

A verbale that follows a serious traffic incident often uses three different words for what happens to the licence, and a reader searching for any one of them is usually really asking about all three at once. Ritiro, sospensione, and revoca are not stages of the same event or interchangeable terms for a temporary loss. They are three legally distinct things, decided by different people at different points in the process, with different consequences.

This page keeps the three apart, sets out how long a suspension or the wait after a revoca actually lasts, and covers what happens to a foreign licence when the underlying offense is one of Italy's road-death or serious-injury crimes.

Information verified on 21 July 2026. This page provides general legal information and does not constitute legal advice for an individual situation.

Three different things, one confusing verbale

Art. 223 C.d.S. governs ritiro, the immediate seizure of the physical licence. Art. 222 C.d.S. governs the accessory sanctions of sospensione and revoca that a criminal court, or in the interim the prefetto, attaches to certain offenses. A single incident can produce all three in sequence, seizure at the roadside, a provisional suspension while the case is pending, and then a final suspension or a revoca once the case concludes, and a verbale rarely spells out which stage a reader is looking at.

Ritiro: the roadside seizure

Where an offense carries sospensione or revoca as a possible accessory sanction, the officer who ascertains the violation immediately withdraws the physical licence at the scene, under art. 223, comma 1. The licence, together with the report, must be transmitted to the prefettura-ufficio territoriale del Governo of the place the violation occurred within 10 days. Where the offense arises from a road accident rather than a roadside stop, the same transmission duty falls on whichever officer or body carried out the accident investigation, under art. 223, comma 2.

Ritiro by itself is not a sanction. It is the administrative step that puts the document into the prefetto's hands so a provisional suspension can be ordered while the criminal case proceeds.

Sospensione: provisional, and final

Two different suspensions can apply to the same case, at two different times, and mixing them up is the single most common source of confusion on this topic.

The provisional suspension is an administrative measure the prefetto issues after receiving the seized licence and report, before the criminal case is decided. Its maximum length depends on the offense: up to 2 years generally, under art. 223, comma 1; up to 3 years where the case involves an accident causing personal injury under art. 222, commi 2 and 3; and up to 5 years for the gravest cases, the aggravated variants of art. 589-bis c.p. (commi 2 to 5) and art. 590-bis c.p. generally, extendable to a maximum of 10 years if a conviction has been handed down but is not yet final because it is under appeal.

The final suspension, by contrast, is an accessory sanction the court imposes with the sentence itself, under art. 222, comma 1. Where the conviction is for a negligent injury or death outside the specific road-offense statutes below, the ranges are 15 days to 3 months for a simple colposa injury, up to 2 years for a grave or gravissima colposa injury, and up to 4 years for an omicidio colposo, reducible by up to a third on a patteggiamento under art. 444 c.p.p.

Revoca: permanent loss, and the wait before a new licence

Since the 2016 reform added art. 589-bis (omicidio stradale) and art. 590-bis (lesioni personali stradali gravi o gravissime) to the criminal code, almost every serious traffic death or serious injury is prosecuted under one of those two offenses rather than under the general negligent-injury or negligent-homicide provisions above. A conviction under either article, whichever comma applies, always results in revoca rather than suspension, under art. 222, comma 2, and the same holds where a court accepts a patteggiamento for the same offenses.

Revoca is not a suspension with a longer clock. It ends the licence entirely, and the person convicted must apply for a new one from scratch once a statutory waiting period has passed, counted from the date of the revoca. That period is not a single number:

One point in this table turns on a drafting question the statute does not settle, and it is better to say so than to guess. Art. 222 comma 3-bis gives the fifteen year period for commi 2 to 4 and the ten year period for comma 5 in a single sentence, then provides that «tale termine» is raised to twenty years where the driver has a prior art. 186 or art. 187 conviction, and increased up to thirty years where the driver failed to stop and fled.

That escalation clause is singular, and the period it sits immediately after is the ten year one. Read strictly, it would attach only to the comma 5 period, leaving the aggravated commi 2 to 4 offenses at a flat fifteen years with no escalation at all. That would let a driver convicted of the more serious variant face a shorter wait than one convicted of the mitigated variant. The reading that avoids that result treats «tale termine» as whichever base period applies to the offender, and it is the reading this table follows.

So the comma 5 escalations are the ones the words most directly support. Anyone counting years off the aggravated row should confirm the current position rather than rely on the figure, because it rests on that reading and not on the text alone.

These figures come directly from art. 222, commi 3-bis and 3-ter, and are more specific than a single "gravity-based" range: the same base offense can carry a 5, 10, or 12-year wait depending on the driver's own prior record and conduct after the incident, not on the injury or death itself.

Foreign and EU licences: inibizione alla guida instead of revoca

An Italian prefetto has no authority to revoke or suspend a document issued by a foreign state. Where a holder of a foreign or EU licence would otherwise face revoca or a provisional suspension under the rules above, the prefetto instead issues a provvedimento di inibizione alla guida sul territorio nazionale, a ban on driving anywhere in Italy, for the same period that would apply to a domestic revoca or suspension, under art. 222, comma 3-quater and art. 223, comma 2-bis. That measure is recorded in the anagrafe nazionale degli abilitati alla guida, visible to Italian authorities even though the foreign licence itself is untouched.

Challenging a suspension order

A provisional suspension issued under art. 223 is not the last word before the criminal case concludes. Art. 223, comma 4 allows the person affected to oppose the suspension order itself, following the same procedure used to oppose a prefetto's ordinanza-ingiunzione, under art. 205 C.d.S. and art. 6 D.Lgs. 150/2011, before the giudice di pace, within 30 days, or 60 days if resident abroad. This challenge concerns the administrative suspension measure itself; it does not substitute for whatever defense is raised in the underlying criminal proceeding.

Three scenarios

A driver causes an accident resulting in a grave personal injury to another road user. The investigating officer seizes the licence at the scene (ritiro) and transmits it, with the report, to the prefettura within 10 days. Because this is an art. 222, commi 2 and 3 case involving injury, the prefetto may order a provisional suspension of up to 3 years while the criminal case is pending. If the conviction is under the general injury provision, the court's sentence adds a final suspension of up to 2 years; if the conviction is instead under art. 590-bis, as it would be in almost every such case today, the result is revoca rather than a further suspension.

A driver is convicted under art. 589-bis, comma 1, the base omicidio stradale offense, and the court finds a prior conviction under art. 186, comma 2, lettera c) for the highest drink-driving band. The conviction results in revoca automatically, and because of the prior conviction, the ordinary 5-year wait before a new licence can be sought is doubled to 10 years.

A tourist driving on a valid EU licence causes a serious injury to a pedestrian and is convicted under art. 590-bis. Rather than revoking a document Italy did not issue, the prefetto issues an inibizione alla guida sul territorio nazionale for the period that would otherwise apply to a domestic revoca, so the person cannot drive in Italy for that period even though the home-country licence remains formally valid there.

For the deadlines and mechanics of contesting a fine or its accessory sanctions, see contesting a traffic fine in Italy. For the points system that runs alongside these sanctions, see Italy's driving licence points system. For the drink-driving bands that often lead to these offenses, see drink driving in Italy. For the full index, see the driving laws section or the Italy hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between ritiro, sospensione, and revoca of a driving licence in Italy?

Ritiro is the physical seizure of the licence at the roadside by the officer who ascertains a relevant offense. Sospensione is a temporary loss of validity, either provisional while a criminal case is pending or imposed as a final accessory sanction on conviction. Revoca is the permanent loss of the licence, which requires a full new application after a waiting period, and it applies automatically on conviction for the gravest road-death and serious-injury offenses.

How long can my licence be provisionally suspended before my trial is over?

It depends on the offense. The general maximum is 2 years. Where the case involves an accident causing injury under art. 222, commi 2 and 3, it rises to 3 years. For the gravest road-death and serious-injury offenses, art. 589-bis (commi 2 to 5) and art. 590-bis, it can reach 5 years, extendable to 10 years if there has been a non-final conviction still under appeal.

How long do I have to wait to get a new licence after a revoca?

It depends on which offense caused the revoca. For the base art. 589-bis offense and art. 590-bis generally, the wait is 5 years, doubled to 10 if the driver had a prior conviction for the higher drink-driving or drug-driving bands, and increased to 12 years if the driver also fled the scene. For the aggravated art. 589-bis offenses, the wait is 15 years, doubled to 20 on the same prior-conviction ground, and increased to 30 years if the driver fled. A separate, lesser-aggravated variant of art. 589-bis carries a 10-year wait.

Does a conviction for causing an accident always mean revoca rather than suspension?

Only where the conviction is specifically under art. 589-bis or art. 590-bis of the criminal code, the offenses that now cover almost all serious traffic deaths and injuries. A negligent injury or death that does not fall under those specific articles instead carries a suspension, ranging from 15 days to 3 months for a simple injury, up to 2 years for a grave or gravissima injury, and up to 4 years for a death, with that suspension reducible by up to a third if the case is resolved by patteggiamento.

What happens to a foreign or EU driving licence after a serious offense committed in Italy?

An Italian prefetto cannot revoke or suspend a document issued by another state. Instead, the prefetto issues an inibizione alla guida sul territorio nazionale, a ban on driving within Italy, for the period that would otherwise apply to revoca or suspension for the same offense.

Who decides whether my licence is suspended or revoked?

A provisional suspension while a case is pending is an administrative act of the prefetto, based on the seized documents and report. A final suspension or a revoca is an accessory sanction the criminal court itself imposes as part of a conviction, and the clerk of the court then notifies the prefetto to give effect to it.

Can I challenge a provisional suspension order?

Yes. A provisional suspension issued under art. 223 can be opposed before the giudice di pace, following the same procedure used to oppose a prefetto's ordinanza-ingiunzione under art. 205 C.d.S. and art. 6 D.Lgs. 150/2011. This is separate from any defense raised in the underlying criminal proceeding itself.