Italy, topic by topic
Seven chapters that apply to everyone. Start at the beginning or jump to what you need.
Bureaucracy
From your first codice fiscale to the long, well-documented slog toward an Italian passport — what the paperwork actually demands and how long each step really takes in 2026.
Free Codice fiscale issuance Read bureaucracy 02Banking
Opening an Italian account is simple once you have a codice fiscale — the real decision is whether to bother with a traditional bank at all, given fees that run well above the EU average.
Codice fiscale Only hard prerequisite to open an account Read banking 03Visas & Immigration
Italy offers a genuinely wide menu of legal pathways — from a retiree’s passive-income visa to a wealthy new resident’s flat tax to a strict annual quota for non-EU workers — and 2025–26 rewrote several of them.
€32,000 Elective Residency Visa min. income (single) Read visas & immigration 04Work
Italy is one of the only major Western European economies with no statutory minimum wage — pay floors instead come from thousands of sector-specific collective agreements, and average take-home pay trails most of the region.
€0 National statutory minimum wage (none) Read work 05Education
Free, Italian-language public schooling from age six, pricier international options in the big cities, and — the genuine surprise for newcomers — some of the most affordable public university tuition in Western Europe.
Free Public school (scuola statale), ages 6–16 Read education 06Housing
Milan’s rents have pulled sharply away from the rest of the country, the deep south offers genuine €1 fixer-uppers, and every lease — cheap or expensive — has to be registered with the tax office to be legally enforceable.
€1,972 Milan avg. rent, 85m² apartment (2026) Read housing 07Cost of Living
Outside Milan, Italy remains one of Western Europe’s more affordable places to live well — with a universal healthcare system whose real-world quality still depends heavily on which region you land in.
Affordable Vs. US/UK metros and most of Western Europe Read cost of livingSources & how current this is
Italian immigration and tax rules moved unusually fast in 2025–26 — the flat-tax regime jumped from €200,000 to €300,000 on 1 January 2026, jure sanguinis was rewritten by decree in March 2025, and the June 2025 citizenship referendum failed on turnout. Confirm live figures with a consulate, questura, or commercialista before relying on them.