Beware getting the Italian driver's license

Beware getting the Italian driver's license. The written test is designed to keep students paying driving schools to learn how to pass the test. (The company given the contract by the government to administer the written test is a private company that also franchises driving schools. The more tests the students fail and thus have to continue to pay those driving schools for more classes, the more money the company administering the test makes. Failure pays.)
If you are an American, you have to take the test, since you cannot just exchange your American license for an Italian license. Beware: once you have gotten your Italian license, nothing you have done before counts: you are classified as a new driver (neopatenti) and cannot drive a vehicle with power exceeding a certain level, for one year. If you own or are leasing a car and you get a new Italian driver's license, you cannot legally drive your own car if it exceeds those power limits, for one year.
Your insurance will not pay to repair damages if you have an accident with your own car during that year. (The insurance is useless, therefore, but you have to have it: you cannot drive a car without insurance.) You can get a cheaper, lower-powered car and insure it, of course, but you still have to pay to have useless insurance on your own other car.