Do I need a visa to visit Italy?

24.01.2025 - 21:15 / lonelyplanet.com

Jan 24, 2025 • 5 min read

Do you need a visa to travel to Italy? That all depends on which passport you hold. Visa requirements for Italy range from precisely zero – no visa or registration needed – to mandatory visas which must be applied for well in advance of your trip. That’s in addition to restrictions on the length of stay, which also vary, depending on what passport you have.

Whether it’s the cliffside Cinque Terre villages or the cityscapes of Rome, Florence and Venice that draw you in, Italy is one of Europe’s big-hitter destinations with good reason.

Deciding to go is the simple part, but figuring out the rules around visiting can be a bit trickier. To make things a little simpler, here’s our guide to visa requirements for Italy, with everything you need to know about the different visa types available and the rules around them.

Italy is part of the Schengen area – a bloc of 29 European countries that comprise the largest border-free area on the planet. Citizens of these countries, as well as the wider EU and EAA, do not require a visa to enter Italy, and there is no time limit on how long they may stay.

Around 60 countries outside the EU, including the UK, USA, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia, are also granted visa-free travel to Italy and other Schengen countries for a maximum of 90 days within any 180 day period. Your passport must be valid for at least three months after your intended departure date, and you may be required to show documentation justifying the reason for your stay and your date of departure. To see if your country is covered, use the questionnaire on the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.

Note that the 90 days covers travel in the entire Schengen area; for example, if you’ve spent 30 days in France, your maximum stay in Italy is 60 days. The 180 days are calculated on a rolling basis and the 90 days don’t have to be consecutive – you can dip in and out of Schengen throughout the year. Calculate dates carefully, as the 90 days cannot be extended, and overstayers risk being deported or barred from re-entry to the bloc. Various online calculators will crunch the numbers and work out your remaining allowance if you input your travel dates and destinations.

Note that the EU plans to bring its long-awaited ETIAS visa waiver scheme in mid-2025. Non-EU passport holders who currently travel visa-free to Italy will need to get preauthorization before travel, in a system similar to the United States’ ESTA program. It is set to cost around €7 and should give speedy online authorization.

Travelers from all other countries require a Schengen visa to enter Italy (and the wider Schengen area). Such countries include India, Pakistan, China, Egypt,