Italy: visa and entry rules
What you need to get in, how long you may stay, and what an overstay costs
Italy's borders: every crossing point
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Italy's land neighbours: France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia - all of them in the Schengen area.
Inside the enclaves: San Marino and the Vatican are surrounded by Italy, and there is no separate border control.
The Alpine passes and tunnels - Mont Blanc, Great St Bernard, the Brenner - work all year round, though in winter the weather has its say.
By sea there are ferries to Greece, Croatia, Albania, Tunisia and Montenegro - Ancona, Bari and Brindisi are linked to the Balkan and African coasts.
The ferries to Greece and Albania are a working route for anyone entering the area other than by air.
Bringing a car into Italy
The realistic options are a ferry from Greece or Montenegro, or renting a car once you are in Europe.
A Green Card is compulsory.
An International Driving Permit is needed only if your licence was issued outside the EU and the EEA; a licence from an EU or EEA country is valid as it is.
Cities enforce ZTL zones - restricted-traffic areas in the historic centres; driving into one without a permit is fined automatically by camera.
Travelling to Italy with a pet
The rules are the same across the whole EU.
An ISO-standard microchip is compulsory and has to be implanted BEFORE the rabies vaccination.
Rabies vaccination - not before 12 weeks of age, and 21 days must pass after it before entry.
A rabies antibody titre test is required only for pets from a country not on the EU's approved list. The US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK are on the list, so this does not apply to pets travelling from those countries; Russia is one of the countries it does apply to. A three-month wait then applies before entry.
An EU veterinary certificate is required.
No more than five animals per person.
Overstaying your visa in Italy
The violation is recorded across the whole Schengen area.
The main consequence is a refusal of your next visa.
An entry ban for a substantial overstay applies to the entire area.
The count is kept for the whole of Schengen, not for Italy separately.
What else to check before you go
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Entry rules change faster than anything else on this site, and they change without notice. We cross-check every page against several sources and state the date it was verified, but that does not replace the main step: before you travel, check an official source — the country’s consulate, its immigration service or its e-visa portal. Especially if more than a couple of months have passed since our check.