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ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP

Italy rolls out new ‘priority line’ for urgent passport requests

Italy launched a new online priority system for urgent passport requests after lengthy wait times cancelled thousands of international trips over the past two years.

Published: 8 April 2024 11:54 CEST
Passport, airport
An immigration officer checks a passenger's passport at an airport. Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP

The new booking system, officially called the Agenda Prioritaria (or ‘Priority Agenda’), was launched on the Italian State Police portal on Friday.

The priority line was to allow citizens in urgent need of a new passport to get their application (or renewal) appointment in under 15 days and a new document within a maximum of 30 days, according to media reports.

Priority booking will be available to applicants who can prove that they need a new passport for reasons related to health (for instance, planned medical procedures or visits), study (scholarships, research projects, admission procedures, etc.), work trips, or tourism. 

The launch of the new system came after applicants reported wait times of up to ten months for passport application appointments at their local police headquarters (Questura) last year, with delays largely attributed to post-Covid backlogs and higher numbers of citizenship requests.

READ ALSO: Italy grants citizenship to more people than any other EU country, study finds

It also followed recent reports that lengthy wait times for passport application or renewal requests caused the cancellation of nearly 170,000 international trips between 2022 and 2023, resulting in losses of up to 300 million euros for the national tourism industry.

The new priority line can be accessed by logging onto the State Police passport portal (available to people who have SPID or electronic ID card credentials) and selecting Appuntamenti Prioritari (‘Priority Bookings’).

READ ALSO: Will my children get an Italian passport if born in Italy?

Applicants will be asked to justify the urgency of their request by completing a self-certification (autocertificazione) form online. All documents will then have to be produced at the scheduled appointment at the local Questura.

Anyone found to have used the priority line without meeting the necessary requirements could face criminal charges, according to reports.

READ ALSO: Italian passport ranked world’s second ‘most powerful’

Italy issued a total of 2.75 million passports in 2023, up by around a million compared to any pre-Covid year on record, according to data provided by Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi last January.

The trend seems to be continuing this year as Italy released over 412,000 passports in the first two months of 2024 alone.

Member comments

  1. Any chance there will be a provision for speeding up the proceed for getting a Permesso di Soggiorno? My Permesso will arrive after it has expired.

  2. Great! Now maybe the govt could turn its attention to the PdS renewal process. Sent in my application Sept *2022*, had my Questura appointment beginning of March *2023* , still waiting for my renewed card. The card I currently have expired 15 months ago. And I was hauled into a room in AMS and questioned when I tried to leave a month ago. Meanwhile … still paying my taxes.
    Thanks Italy immigration! 👏

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For members

TOURISM

‘Not even that ancient’: The harshest TripAdvisor comments about Italy’s sights

From Roman ruins to grand Gothic palaces, Italy’s most popular tourist attractions welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors every year – but not everyone leaves satisfied.

Published: 16 May 2024 09:47 CEST
'Not even that ancient': The harshest TripAdvisor comments about Italy's sights

With its rich cultural heritage and plenty of art and architecture wonders, Italy draws hundreds of thousands of visitors from all corners of the world every year. 

But a quick scroll through the review section of travel website TripAdvisor will be enough to show that some of the country’s most famous attractions aren’t to everyone’s taste.

Colosseum, Rome

It may be Italy’s biggest tourist attraction, but even the Colosseum – the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, dating back to 80 AD – fails to impress some.

“I came. I saw. I left,” wrote one reviewer, saying that looking at pictures of the building and reading about its history will spare you from “a long wait line, a port a john [sic] bathroom, and a big disappointment”.

READ ALSO: Nine tips for making the most of a Rome city break

Others were seemingly not so happy with the overall state of the attraction.

“[It] was a lot more broken than I thought it would be, at £15 a pop you’d think they’d invest in repairing it,” one wrote. 

“Not even got a roof? When they finishing it [sic]?” asked another. 

Milan, Duomo 

Though it is often regarded as one of, if not the greatest example of Italian Gothic architecture, not everyone seems to be impressed by Milan’s Duomo cathedral. 

“The outside is gaudy and tacky as the worst of Las Vegas,” while “the inside is as bad taste as the outside” and not worth the wait, “even if they paid you”, one reviewer wrote.

READ ALSO: Stay away! How Europe’s most popular spots are fighting overtourism

Another said the Duomo was no different than any “old cathedral” found in every European city, claiming that “pigeons watching [sic] is more exciting than this building”.

Speaking of pigeons, one tourist warned future visitors about the aggressiveness of the local bird population, saying that the area surrounding the Duomo is “swarming with thousands of pigeons that have long ago lost any fear of humans” and will “fly directly at your head”, forcing you to “take evasive action”.

Just another cathedral? The famed Duomo in Milan. Photo by Martin Anselmo on Unsplash

Doge’s Palace, Venice

Venice’s Palazzo Ducale is the third most-visited tourist attraction in the country and arguably one of the best-preserved traces of the ancient Venetian Republic’s power. 

But the palace isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – at least judging from its reviews.

“When you go inside, there’s nothing to see except a lot of paintings on the ceilings and high on the walls. The paintings are impressive but very samey,” one reviewer wrote.

READ ALSO: What’s the difference between Italy’s city taxes and new ‘tourist tax’?

“Really boring,” complained another, saying that the rooms were “bland” and “the view never got any better”. 

Other visitors said they were disappointed with some of their tour guides’ choices.

One wrote: “Our guide took pleasure in telling about people being tortured here. It was a bit grizzly [sic]. Personally I would give the place a miss.” 

Tourists sit under the archway of the Doge's Palace in Venice

The Doge’s Palace in Venice, which some visitors found abit “samey”. Photo by Marco BERTORELLO / AFP

Pompeii 

Even the Pompeii archaeological site, which consists of the ruins of a city buried under volcanic ash following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, has its fair share of detractors.

A reviewer described the site as being “poorly paved street after poorly paved street of pretty much the same old same old terraced house over and over and over and over”.

Another said: “I really don’t get what the hype is about.

“It’s not even that ancient since they had to build so many structures around it to keep it standing. Even the freaking pillars didn’t make it (some barely did I guess).”

One reviewer even went as far as saying it was the “worst place” he’d ever visited, mentioning he had “too much ground to cover in sweltering heat” and he “should have stayed at the nice beaches of Vico Equense”. 

Trevi Fountain, Rome

A prime example of Italian Baroque aesthetics, the Trevi fountain is one of Rome’s most widely recognised symbols worldwide, but not all visitors are impressed by it.

“It splashes and splashes. It spurtles and flows. It fountains and gurgles and is as romantic as my oldest pairs of smelly socks,” wrote one reviewer, who concluded they felt “let down”.

Tourists around Rome's Trevi Fountain

Tourists around Rome’s Trevi Fountain in March 2024. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

That said, many reviewers expressed appreciation for the fountain’s architecture, but complained that their visit was ruined by hordes of fellow tourists. These complaints are far from unjustified given the attraction’s long-standing overcrowding issues. 

One reviewer suggested that “packing a pair of 8 foot stilts” may be the only way to “ensure a satisfying visit to the Trevi”.

Another called the attraction a “claustrophobia mecca” that’s “nearly impossible to deal with because of the thousands of pushy, sweaty, rude and large tourists”.

Have you seen a surprising review of an Italian landmark? Are there any Italian sights you think are overrated? Let us know in the comments section below.

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