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POSTAL SERVICE

Nine things you can do at an Italian post office apart from buying stamps

From submitting a residency permit application to accessing financial services and paying utility bills, sending mail isn't the only thing you'll be able to do at a post office in Italy.

Published: 7 March 2024 15:02 CET
Post office
The entrance of the Piazza San Silvestro's post office in Rome. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

While you may not have any trouble finding one (there are over 12,000 establishments across the country), Italian post offices aren’t always easy to figure out, not least because they tend to be fairly crowded and information in English can be hard to come by, especially in the smaller branches.

But whether you hate them or love them, post offices in Italy aren’t just where you’ll go to send mail to friends or relatives back home, or to pick up a care package if you weren’t home to receive it.

Italian uffici postali are a key part of life in Italy as they’re a hub for a number of citizen services, including some bureaucratic procedures. Here’s a look at some of the things you can do at a post office in Italy.

Access banking services

Italy’s Poste Italiane has an entire branch – BancoPosta (literally, ‘BankPost’) – dedicated to providing customers with a wide range of financial services, including savings accounts, prepaid cards, exchange brokerage services, investments, insurance, and various online payment services.

READ ALSO: The verdict: What are the best banks for foreigners in Italy?

This means that the major post offices around the country (the smaller establishments generally don’t have the capacity to manage financial services) essentially double up as banks, allowing you to take out loans and mortgages, make investments and manage a pension plan. Further information can be found here. 

Complete your permesso di soggiorno application

Italy’s residence permit is a necessary hurdle for non-EU nationals looking to stay in the country for more than three months.

For most types of permesso, the application begins with a visit to the nearest post office with a sportello amico (literally, ‘friendly desk’), where you’ll be asked to fill out the relevant form and provide the necessary documentation. Once you’ve submitted the application, the process will continue at the local police headquarters (Questura).

Request or renew a passport 

As of Monday, March 11th, it’ll be possible to request a passport or renew an existing one in a number of post offices around the country as part of the government’s ‘Polis Project’ – a nationwide scheme to digitalise citizen services and streamline bureaucracy. 

The new passport services will be available in some 7,000 offices (for a total of 16 million residents involved), all located in municipalities (or comuni) with up to 15,000 inhabitants. A full list of comuni involved in the initiative should be released by Poste Italiane in the coming days.

READ ALSO: How soon can I get an Italian passport after gaining citizenship?

Applicants will be asked to submit the necessary documentation directly with the post office staff, who will then process it and send it to the relevant Questura. Once completed, the passport will be delivered straight to your home address. 

Post office, Italy

The Poste Italiane logo at the entrance of a post office in Rome. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

Ask for registry records and residency certificates

As of January 19th, under the same scheme mentioned above, some selected post offices around the country are allowed to release records and certificates held by Italy’s population registry (or Anagrafe).

Services include the issuance of residency and family status certificates. A full list of available certificati anagrafici can be found here.

Buy a phone or home internet plan

Next to a financial branch, Poste Italiane also has a telecommunications unit, which means that you can purchase a mobile or landline phone plan as well as broadband services in some selected post offices or via Poste Italiane’s online services.

Pay your utility bills

Nowadays, most people in Italy prefer to pay their utility bills online, but it’s still possible to go and pay them at the post office through a bollettino postale (postal money order).

This remains a convenient option for those who want to pay in cash or don’t feel confident making payments with credit or debit cards online.

Set up your digital ID account

Having a SPID account is a pretty convenient way to save yourself a trip to the nearest government office to file some basic paperwork as it gives residents access to a range of key online public services (including some of Italy’s home bonuses).

READ ALSO: What is a SPID and how do you get one?

You can set up the digital ID system at your local post office or via the Poste Italian app or website. 

Purchase collectors’ stamps

Stamp enthusiasts can purchase a range of collectors’ items at major post offices around the country. You can also order the stamps you have your eye on online and have them delivered straight to your address.

Send mail (even from home)

Alongside all of the above services, the post office is, of course, still the place to go to if you’re looking to send a letter or a package, or to pick one up if you weren’t home to receive it.

The wait times can be pretty long, especially in smaller branches, which is why it’s generally advisable to book your visit through the Poste Italiane app. Alternatively, it’s possible to send some types of documents to the post office electronically and have them print them out, put them in an envelope, and mail them for you without you ever leaving the house. 

This is a non-exclusive list. Have we missed anything? Let us know in the comments below.

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POLITICS

Can foreign residents in Italy vote in the European elections?

The year 2024 is a bumper one for elections, among them the European elections in June. Italy is of course a member of the EU - so can foreign residents vote in the elections that will almost certainly affect their daily lives?

Published: 3 May 2024 15:25 CEST
Can foreign residents in Italy vote in the European elections?

Across Europe, people will go to the polls in early June to select their representatives in the European Parliament, with 76 seats up for grabs in Italy. 

Although European elections usually see a much lower turnout than national elections, they are still seen as important by Italian politicians.

Giorgia Meloni will stand as a candidate this year, hoping use her personal popularity to give her Brothers of Italy party a boost and build on her success in Italy to “send the left into opposition” at the European level too.

When to vote

Across Italy, polling takes place on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th June 2024.

Polling stations will be set up in the same places as for national and local elections – usually town halls, leisure centres and other public buildings.

You have to vote at the polling station for the municipality in which you are registered as a resident, which should be indicated on your electoral card.

Polling stations open at 8am and mostly close at 6pm, although some stay open later.

Unlike in presidential or local elections, there is only a single round of voting in European elections.

Who can vote? 

Italian citizens – including dual nationals – can vote in European elections, even if they don’t live in Italy. As is common for Italian domestic elections, polling booths will be set up in Italian consulates around the world to allow Italians living overseas to vote.

Non-Italian citizens who are living in Italy can only vote if they have citizenship of an EU country. So for example Irish citizens living in Italy can vote in European elections but Americans, Canadians, Australians, etc. cannot.

Brits in Italy used to be able to vote before Brexit, but now cannot – even if they have the post-Brexit carta di soggiorno.

If you have previously voted in an election in Italy – either local or European – you should still be on the electoral roll.

If not, in order to vote you need to send an application more than 90 days before the election date.

How does the election work?

The system for European elections differs from most countries’ domestic polls. MEPs are elected once every five years.

Each country is given an allocation of MEPs roughly based on population size. At present there are 705 MEPs: Germany – the country in the bloc with the largest population – has the most while the smallest number belong to Malta with just six.

Italy, like most of its EU neighbours, elects its MEPs through direct proportional representation via the ‘list’ system, so that parties gain the number of MEPs equivalent to their share of the overall vote.

So, for example, if Meloni’s party won 50 percent of the vote they would get 38 out of the total of 76 Italian seats.

Exactly who gets to be an MEP is decided in advance by the parties who publish their candidate lists in priority order. So let’s say that Meloni’s party does get that 50 percent of the vote – then the people named from 1 to 38 on their list get to be MEPs, and the people lower down on the list do not, unless a candidate (for example, Meloni) declines the seat and passes it on to the next person on the list.

In the run up to the election, the parties decide on who will be their lead candidates and these people will almost certainly be elected (though Meloni would almost definitely not take up her seat as an MEP, as this would mean resigning from office in Italy).

The further down the list a name appears, the less likely that person is to be heading to parliament.

Once in parliament, parties usually seek to maximise their influence by joining one of the ‘blocks’ made up of parties from neighbouring countries that broadly share their interests and values eg centre-left, far-right, green.

The parliament alternates between Strasbourg and Brussels. 

Find out more about voting in the European elections from Italy on the European Parliament’s website or the Italian interior ministry’s website.

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