Italy

Italy has five long-stay routes worth comparing, and the right one depends on where the income comes from and whether any work will be done in Italy.

• Remote workers: the digital nomad and remote worker visa is the natural fit for highly skilled people working for foreign employers or clients. It needs a degree or long professional experience, at least 6 months in the field and income above a formula-based floor.
• Retirees and people living on investments: the elective residence visa suits those with stable passive income who won't work at all. Consulates set their own income figures.
• Freelancers and entrepreneurs with an Italian project: the self-employment visa is limited by an annual quota and to five categories, and needs clearance from Italy before the visa.
• Investors: the investor visa starts at €250,000 in an innovative startup and runs up to bond purchases and large donations.
• Relatives of residents: family reunification brings a spouse, children or dependent parents to join a non-EU national already living in Italy.

Things that apply to every route

• Visa and permit: every route includes a national visa from an Italian consulate, and the holder then applies for a residence permit at the Questura within eight working days of arrival.
• Work: the elective residence visa rules out any work; the digital nomad visa covers remote work; the family permit allows any work.
• Family: spouses and children can join holders of the digital nomad, elective residence and investor visas.

Visits without a permit

Italy is in the Schengen area, so nationals of visa-exempt countries can stay 90 days in any 180-day period, and that allowance is shared across every Schengen country rather than counted per country. Days on a residence permit or long-stay visa don't count toward it.

The EU's Entry/Exit System has registered short-stay visitors at external borders since Oct. 12, 2025, taking fingerprints and a facial image. On ETIAS, the travel authorization planned for visa-exempt visitors, the official position is this: Not yet operating and no official start date. The EU says it will announce the date several months before launch. The earlier official target, the last quarter of 2026, was removed from the official ETIAS website on July 14-17, 2026.

Italy uses the euro. In Numbeo's crowd-sourced prices for September 2026, a single person's monthly spending excluding rent was about €850 to €1,050 in the four cities below. Rent drives the rest, and Milan stands apart.

Each total adds the average one-bedroom rent, outside the center and in it, to Numbeo's estimate of a single person's other monthly costs. The figures are averages of user reports, not official statistics, and short-term furnished lets usually cost more than these long-term averages.

A realistic monthly budget for one remote worker renting a one-bedroom apartment is about €1,400 to €1,700 in Turin or Naples, €1,600 to €1,950 in Rome and €2,100 to €2,600 in Milan. Spread over 12 months, the digital nomad visa's income floor comes to a little over €2,000 a month, which covers the Rome, Naples and Turin totals but not a central Milan apartment.

Italy's bases differ more by cost and pace than by infrastructure.

• Milan: the business capital, with the most coworking spaces, the best international flight links and the highest rents in the table above. It suits people who want a big professional network.
• Rome: the capital, with a huge choice of neighborhoods and the ministries and consulates that some paperwork needs. Costs sit between Milan and the south.
• Turin: a northern city with Milan-level services at noticeably lower rents, close to the Alps.
• Bologna: a university city with a strong food scene and fast rail links to Milan, Florence and Rome.
• Naples: the south's largest city, cheaper than Rome, with quick access to the Amalfi Coast and the islands of the Bay of Naples.

City guides also cover Florence, Palermo, Lecce, Bari and Verona, among others.

Fixed broadband has improved fast. Speedtest's Global Index put Italy's median fixed download speed at 281.08 Mbps in August 2026 and its median mobile speed at 134.46 Mbps. Fiber is common in the big cities, while older buildings and rural areas can still lag, so a rental's connection is worth testing before a long booking.

Milan has the largest coworking scene, followed by Rome, Turin and Bologna, where spaces range from large chains to small independent studios. Smaller cities in the south and on the islands have fewer dedicated spaces, and remote workers there rely more on home connections and cafes.

EU roaming rules let a SIM from another EU country work in Italy without extra charges on trips, but not for permanent use, so a long stay calls for an Italian plan.

None of Italy's residence routes carries a tax regime of its own. Tax follows the Agenzia delle Entrate's residence rules: a person is resident for income tax if, for most of the year (183 days, or 184 in a leap year), any one of these holds:

• their domicile, the center of their personal and family relationships, is in Italy;
• their habitual residence is in Italy;
• they are physically present in Italy, counting fractions of days;
• they are registered in the resident population register, unless they show the registration doesn't match reality.

Physical presence alone can make someone resident, so a digital nomad who spends most of the year in Italy should expect to be tax-resident there. Tax residents are generally taxed on their worldwide income, with relief under any tax treaty.

Regimes for new residents

Italy offers an optional substitute tax on foreign income for high-net-worth people who move their tax residence to Italy. Its annual amount has changed over time, so the current figure should be confirmed with the Agenzia delle Entrate before planning around it. Any other tax incentive for people moving to Italy is claimed through the tax system, not the visa, and has its own conditions.

What to check

• How the home country taxes the same income, and whether a tax treaty with Italy decides which country taxes first.
• Social security contributions for remote workers and the self-employed, which the visa rules don't settle.
• Registration for a tax code (codice fiscale), needed for leases, bank accounts and most contracts.

• Tax code: a codice fiscale is needed for leases, bank accounts and most contracts. First-time applicants book an in-person appointment at an Agenzia delle Entrate office.
• Residence permit deadline: long-stay visa holders must apply for a residence permit at the Questura within eight working days of arrival, usually through the post office application kit.
• Health insurance: the digital nomad and elective residence visas require cover for the whole stay. Checking that a policy covers routine care in Italy, not just emergencies, avoids gaps.
• Housing: the digital nomad and elective residence visas ask for proof of accommodation before the visa is issued, and some consulates accept only a lease or deed, not a hotel booking.
• Emergencies: 112 reaches police, fire and ambulance services free of charge, as everywhere in the EU.
• Getting around: high-speed trains link Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples, making it easy to base in one city and travel to others.