Hola Lucas, unless something changed recently (or maybe motorizzazione of your city has different rules - I don't think so) this part is not correct. You can convert your license after having your residency, I'd be surprised of the opposite to be honest.
I know because I did it 2 years ago. The only requisite is that your argentinian license has not expired.
Feel free to reach out if you need.
Yes, I forgot to mention that little detail. Mine is expired :-( which I'm regretting so much.
Maybe it helps you, and I don't know if that's the case for Italy, but here in Romania there are a couple of websites to which you can temporarily subscribe ("temporarily" meaning 7 to 10 days, can't remember exactly) and then you can train yourself on those test questions like you're during the exam itself. After 3 or 4 days of going through those tests again and again you're pretty much guaranteed to pass the police test itself, even if you haven't read the actual road legislation.
As for the bureaucracy I cannot offer any good advice, but maybe there are also some companies who can help you with that? (after paying them, of course).
It should be as simple as go to for 3 or 4hs rule driving course by the government (or authorized government authority), then sign a document declaring that you have assisted the course and you are aware of driving rules and allow you to do supervised driving before taking the driving exam.
Every single time I'm walking on the streets I particularly pay attention to car drivers when going to the supermarket. Do you know what a lot of people are doing? Looking at mobile phone screens.
Given the fact that statistically almost everyone has a mobile phone I'm inclined to think that distraction due to mobile screen can be as dangerous (or even more) as being drunk while driving. This is also why I believe that displays in cars should be completely banned and driving instruments should be old school.
Also was thinking of getting a motorcycle license in the US so I can use it there for a while (since the moto license school is $1200usd vs 250 for a class in the us).
If you own a car in Italy, you have to locate the nearest autoscuola/ufficio pratiche auto (literally "car bureaucracy office") and get in friendly terms with them. They do all sort of car-related stuff for relatively small fees (the only one I remember is the 1€ fee for paying the car tax).
Edit: some corrections.
They can handle just the bureaucracy for a small fee. Some of them refuse to do so, but they totally can.
In order to actually sit down for this test (which it only takes 20 minutes in front of the computer) you need to first make an appointment, then go to the motor vehicle department and THEN there make the real appointment for the test. For the first appointment there can be 1 or 2 months wait. To sit down in the computer 2 or 3 months.
No one ever will answer the telephone, as a matter of fact all the contacts in the official website are incorrect (the mail address does not exist and the phone number is actually missing a digit). If you show up at the department, no one would actually talk to you if you do not have an appointment, even if the office is empty. If you actually manage to talk to someone they will say that they can't do anything, that everything is with appointment from the website and refuse to help you, they might even treat you rudely as if you were the cause of the problem.
To make any appointment, you need to log in in a crappy site and manually click each day in the calendar until you get lucky and find a day that is free for selection. So if from today two months in time there is an empty slot, you need to click 60 times the calendar.
If you have read "The Trial" by Kafka, this is 100 times worst.
One last thing that goes beyond comprehension. If you come from Argentina (like I do) and you have a valid driver's licence you can get the Italian one by some paperwork only before you get residency but not AFTER. If you want the licence after getting residency, you need to go through this hell.