Local short name form

Official name

Area

Population

Capital

Currency

International telephone access code

ISO 3166 country codes

Car nationality plate code

Internet country code

GRC Country Code

   1.234,45

(where , indicates the decimal separator and . the thousands separator)

   Note: This section last updated 2nd May 2021

   dd/mm/yyyy

The 24-hour clock notation is used.

   14:32

Italian , the official language, is spoken by 94% of the population. Other languages are Sard (2%, spoken in Sardinia in four distinct forms); Rhaetian (or Ladin, spoken by about 30 000 people, mainly in South Tyrol); German (also spoken in South Tyrol by some 225 000 people); French (spoken by 100 000 people in Piedmont in the Aosta Valley); Friulian (600 000 speakers - a Rhaetian dialect, spoken in Friuli-Venezia-Giulia); Catalan (21 629 speakers in Alghero on Sardinia); Slovene (by 100 000 people in Trieste and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia); Croatian (3 500 speakers); Greek (20 000 speakers) and Albanian (80 000 speakers) (all mainly spoken in southern Italy).

There are 2 230 speakers of Cimbrian (a Germanic dialect) in Trentino-Alto-Adige; 3 400 speakers of several dialects of Walser , a dialect of German, in the Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta mountain villages of Alagna, Campello Monti, Formazza, Gressoney-Saint-Jean, Gressoney-la-Trinité, Issime, Macugnaga, Rima and Rimella; 270 000 speakers of Franco-Provençal and Provençal (in the Aosta Valley and other valleys of upper Piedmont); 1 900 speakers of Mócheno , a Germanic language, in the villages of Palú, Gereut and Fierozzo in the Valle del Fersina and 21 000 speakers of three forms of Romani . Corsican is spoken on the island of Maddalena off the north-east coast of Sardinia. Ligurian , an Italian dialect, is spoken by some 1 800 000 people in Liguria; Lombard , also an Italian dialect, by some 8 600 000 people in Lombardy, and similarly Sicilian is spoken by 4 700 000 people on Sicily and Venetian by 2 100 000 people around Venetia.

A trilingual (Ladin, German and Italian) business sign in South Tyrol

The South Tyrol, Südtirol in German, Alto Adige or Bolzano in Italian (postal code area 39) has a population of 433 229 (1981), of which 66 per cent (and increasing) are German speakers, 30 per cent (and decreasing) Italian speakers and 4 per cent Ladin-speakers (Rhaeto-Romanche). It became an autonomous region in January 1995. The inhabitants of this area are highly language-sensitive. It is important to mail in the right language.

Valle d’Aosta / Vallée d’Aoste is officially bilingual French (Franco-Provençals) and Italian, with a recognized Walser-speaking minority.

A bilingual Italian/Catalan street name, Alghero, Sardinia

This is written A.C.A. (Alla Cortese Attenzione) or simply as Cortese in Italian. One may also use All’ Attenzione d’ before a vowel, All’ Attenzione del before a male name or All’ Attenzione della before a female name.

   Note: This section last updated 18th December 2016

Unlike French and Spanish, where compound given names remain separate, in Italian these are usually compounded into a single name with a modified spelling:

   Michele + Angelo = Michelangelo
   Giovanni + Batista = Giambattista
   Giovanni + Giacomo = Giangiacomo

Personal names may be written given name+family name or family name+given name.

Academic qualifications and professions are used as forms of address, followed by the family name. The most common are:

   Architetto                              Architect
   Avvocato                                Law degree
   Dottor                                  Any degree, medical degree
   Dottore(m) / Dottoressa (f)             Bachelors degree
   Ingegnere(Ing.)                         Engineering degree
   Maestro(m) / Maestra (f)                Primary school teacher
   Professore(m) / Professoressa (f)       Secondary school teacher, higher degree
   Ragioniere(Rag.)                        Accountant

Note that dottor is written dottore when not followed by a name.

In 2016 Italy’s constitutional court ruled Italy’s law, requiring children of married couples to take the man’s surname, unconstitutional. However, this law has not yet been repealed.

   Tables of names can be acquired: given names , surnames/family names , family name prefixes , forms of address , job titles 

In Italy it is more correct, where the nature of a company is mentioned in its name, that this precedes the name of the company, thus:

   Fornaio Luigi

   Note: This section last updated 16th January 2018

The following company types may be recognized in Italian company names:

   Associazione
   Azienda
   Consorzio
   Ente Morale
   ICDP
   Municipale
   Municipale Assicurazioni
   Società
   Società Agricola (agricultural company)
   SA (Società Anonima)
   SapA (Società in accomandita per Azioni – limited partnership with shares)
   Sas (Società in accomandita semplice – limited partnership)
   SCarl (Società Consortili a responsabilità limitata) 
   SCpA (Società Consortile per Azioni – Consortium Stock Company)
   Scrl (Società cooperativa a responsabilità limitata) - co-operative limited liability company
   SGRpA
   Società Consortile
   Società Cooperativa
   Società di Fatto
   Società Estera
   Società di Gestione del Risparmio(SGR)
   Società Individuale
   SnC (Società in nome Collettivo – general partnership) 
   SpA (Società per Azioni – limited share company) 

   SpAU (Società per Azioni Unipersonale)

   SrL (Società a responsabilità Limitata – limited liability company)
   Srlcr (Società a responsabilità limitata a capitale ridotto)   
   Srls (Società a responsabilità Limitata Semplificata) 
   Società semplice (S.s.)

French and German equivalents of these legal forms will also commonly be found. For example:

    Vereinfachte GmbH (Vereinfachte Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) 

   Comprehensive tables of these strings can be acquired – see http:www.grcdi.nl/addresses.htm 

   Note: This section last updated 9th April 2015

Italian addresses are written in this format:

   Recipient name 
   thoroughfare type[ ]Thoroughfare name[ ]number 
   postal code[ ]TOWN[ ]PROVINCE ABBREVIATION

or

   Recipient name 
   thoroughfare type[ ]Thoroughfare name[, ]number 
   postal code[ ]TOWN[ ]PROVINCE ABBREVIATION

For example:

or

The province abbreviation may also be found written between brackets, but the Italian Post Office prefer that no punctuation is used in the address.

The thoroughfare type is written before and separately from the thoroughfare name. The thoroughfare type should be written with the first letter in lower case.

Italian addresses may give the kilometre number of a house or company on long or inter-city routes rather than house numbers. The numbers are called segnale di progressive chilometrica. There may be two numbers separated by a dot, space, comma or plus sign. The first number indicates the kilometres along the road from the start point, the second the number of metres from that kilometre point. Thus SS 16 km 810.200 is 810 km 200 metres from the start of the measuring point on Strada Statale (state road) number 16.

In small villages, each house in the village gets a number rather than houses being numbered on a street-by-street basis. In these cases, the word frazione (literally “fraction”) or borgata (“hamlet”) is used, followed by the village name. In these addresses, the settlement name (i.e. that following the postal code) is the name of the commune to which the hamlet belongs. Thus, for the hamlet of Capo Mosso in the commune of Mosso Santa Maria, an address might be:

   frazione Capo Mosso 17
   13456 MOSSO SANTA MARIA BI

Where a street name is written with ‘SN’ where the building number should be, like this:

   via Gianbattista Vico SN

This means senzo numero, without number. SNC, in the same position, means senza numero civico - without civil (house) number.

Venice

Venice has its own system of house numbering, based on one of the six quarters (sestieri – Cannaregio, Castello, Dorsoduro, San Marco, San Polo and Santa Croce) rather than on the street name. An address might, therefore, be:

   San Marco 4687

Valle d’Aosta

Valle d’Aosta is bilingual French and Italian, and addresses may be found written in either language. Usually (but not always) the thoroughfare name is the same but the thoroughfare type takes the alternative language. For example:

   via Pietro
   rue Pietro

A numbered street, Sardinia

Rarely, addresses from villages in the Lys Valley may be found written in Walser.

   A table containing information about the relevant position of elements within address blocks can be acquired 

Building indicators

   Comprehensive tables of these strings can be acquired – see http:www.grcdi.nl/addresses.htm 

Thoroughfare types

   Comprehensive tables of these strings can be acquired – see http:www.grcdi.nl/addresses.htm 

Other elements commonly found in address databases

This is written as Casella Postale, abbreviated to CP.

   Note: This section last updated 24th April 2018

Postal codes (Codice di Avviamento Postale (CAP)), introduced on 1st July 1967) consist of a block of 5 digits, and are highly correlated with administrative districts.

The first digit of the postal code indicates one of 10 large postal zones. These do not correspond to Italy’s provinces but the borders of the postal zones do follow the borders of the regions.

The 8 number strings which are not found at the beginning of postal codes are as follows:

49, 68, 69, 76, 77, 78, 79, 99

Some cities are themselves are split into further zones with postal codes on street level. These cities are as follows:

   00100 Roma
   06100 Perugia
   09100 Cagliari
   10100 Torino
   15100 Alessandria
   16100 Genova
   19100 La Spezia
   20100 Milano
   24100 Bergamo
   25100 Brescia
   28900 Verbania
   29100 Piacenza
   30100 Venezia
   30170 Mestre
   34100 Trieste
   35100 Padova
   37100 Verona
   38100 Trento
   40100 Bologna
   41100 Modena
   42100 Reggio Emilia
   43100 Parma
   44100 Ferrara
   41121/2 Forlì
   47521/2 Cesena
   47900 Rimini
   48100 Ravenna
   50100 Firenze
   56100 Pisa
   57100 Livorno
   60100 Ancona
   61100 Pesaro
   65100 Pescara
   70100 Bari
   71121/2 Foggia
   74100 Taranto
   80100 Napoli
   84100 Salerno
   89100 Reggio Calabria
   90100 Palermo
   95100 Catania
   98100 Messina

Please refer to the section on “Administrative Districts” for a list of postal codes per province.

The independent state of San Marino, region code SM, has the postal code 47031.

The independent state of Holy See (Vatican City), has the postal code 00120.

   Metadata containing postal code formatting rules, exceptions and regular expressions can be acquired 

Italy - Postal code format graphic

Italy - Postal code format

Italy - Postal code specifics

Italy - Postal code regular expression

Italy - Postal code level of coverage

Italy - Postal code map

   Note: This section last updated 18th October 2016

Refer to Exonyms in Italy for full lists of place names in Italy in other languages.

   Alternate place name forms/postal code tables can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/settlements.htm 

   Other language place name data can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/otherlanguageplace.htm 

   Note: This section last updated 18th February 2022

The correct abbreviation for the province in which an address is located should be included after and on the same line as the town name. Though these are often written between brackets, no brackets should be printed in the address.

Italy has 102 provinces (Provincie), including 14 Metropolitan Cities (Città Metropolitana) and 6 Free Communal Consortia (Liberi Consorzi Comunali), in 20 regions (Regioni, singular regione). Aldo-Adige (Süd Tirol/South Tyrol) and Trentino are autonomous provinces. The region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia no longer contains provinces. Its postal codes commence with 33 or 34.

Most provinces are named after its capital or another main city.

In the cases where two or more provinces share the same first two postal code digits, these are marked with an asterisk. The regions are listed below with the English translation in brackets:

The metropolitan cities are shown with #. Free Communal Consortia are shown with ‡.

Province	Postal code	Postal abbreviation	Region
Agrigento ‡	92	AG	Sicilia (Sicily)
Alessandria	15	AL	Piemonte (Piedmont)
Ancona	60	AN	Marche
Aosta	11	AO	Valle D’Aosta
Arezzo	52	AR	Toscana (Toscany)
Ascoli Piceno *	63 (Some of these codes passed to the new province of Fermo in June 2009)	AP	Marche
Asti	14	AT	Piemonte (Piedmont)
Avellino	83	AV	Campania
Bari #*	70 (Some of these codes passed to the new province of Barletta-Andria-Trani in June 2009)	BA	Puglia
Barletta-Andria-Trani *	Took codes from Bari and Foggia from June 2009	BT	Puglia
Belluno	32	BL	Veneto
Benevento	82	BN	Campania
Bergamo	24	BG	Toscana (Lombardy)
Biella	138, 139	BI	Piemonte (Piedmont)
Bologna #	40	BO	Emilia-Romagna
Bolzano-Alto Adige / Bozen-Süd Tirol	39	BZ	Trentino-Alto Adige
Brescia	25	BS	Lombardia (Lombardy)
Brindisi	72	BR	Puglia
Cagliari #*	080, 0901, 0902, 0903, 0904, 09100, 0912, 09131, 09134,	CA	Sardegna (Sardinia)
Caltanissetta ‡	93	CL	Sicilia (Sicily)
Campobasso *	8601-8604, 86100	CB	Molise
Caserta	81	CE	Campania
Catania #	95	CT	Sicilia (Sicily)
Catanzaro	880, 881	CZ	Calabria
Chieti	66	CH	Abruzzo
Como	22	CO	Lombardia (Lombardy)
Cosenza	87	CS	Calabria
Cremona	260, 261	CR	Lombardia (Lombardy)
Crotone	888, 889	KR	Calabria
Cuneo	12	CN	Piemonte (Piedmont)
Enna ‡	94	EN	Sicilia (Sicily)
Fermo *	Took codes from Ascoli Piceno from June 2009	FM	Marche
Ferrara	44	FE	Emilia-Romagna
Firenze #	50	FI	Toscana (Toscany)
Foggia *	71 (Some of these codes passed to the new province of Barletta-Andria-Trani in June 2009)	FG	Puglia
Forlì-Cesena	470, 471	FC	Emilia-Romagna
Frosinone	03	FR	Lazio
Genova #	16	GE	Liguria
Grosseto	58	GR	Toscana (Toscany)
Imperia	18	IM	Liguria
Isernia *	8607, 8608, 8609, 86170	IS	Molise
L’Aquila	67	AQ	Abruzzo
La Spezia	19	SP	Liguria
Latina	04	LT	Lazio
Lecce	73	LE	Puglia
Lecco	238, 239	LC	Lombardia (Lombardy)
Livorno	57	LI	Toscana (Toscany)
Lodi	268, 269	LO	Lombardia (Lombardy)
Lucca	55	LU	Toscana (Toscany)
Macerata	62	MC	Marche
Mantova	46	MN	Lombardia (Lombardy)
Massa-Carrara	54	MS	Toscana (Toscany)
Matera	75	MT	Basilicata
Messina #	98	ME	Sicilia (Sicily)
Milano #*	20 (Some of these codes passed to the new province of Monza e Brianza in June 2009)	MI	Lombardia (Lombardy)
Modena	41	MO	Emilia-Romagna
Monza e Brianza *	Took codes from Milano from June 2009	MB	Lombardia (Lombardy)
Napoli #	80	NA	Campania
Novara	280, 281	NO	Piemonte (Piedmont)
Nuoro *	0801-0804, 081	NU	Sardegna (Sardinia)
Oristano *	0907, 0908, 0909, 09170, 080	OR	Sardegna (Sardinia)
Padova	35	PD	Veneto
Palermo #	90	PA	Sicilia (Sicily)
Parma	43	PR	Emilia-Romagna
Pavia	27	PV	Lombardia (Lombardy)
Perugia	06	PG	Umbria
Pesaro e Urbino	61	PU	Marche
Pescara	65	PE	Abruzzo
Piacenza	29	PC	Emilia-Romagna
Pisa	56	PI	Toscana (Toscany)
Pistoia	51	PT	Toscana (Toscany)
Potenza	85	PZ	Basilicata
Prato	59	PO	Toscana (Toscany)
Ragusa ‡	97	RG	Sicilia (Sicily)
Ravenna	48	RA	Emilia-Romagna
Reggio (di) Calabria	890, 891	RC	Calabria #
Reggio (nell’) Emilia	42	RE	Emilia-Romagna
Rieti	02	RI	Lazio
Rimini	478, 479	RN	Emilia-Romagna
Roma #	00	RM	Lazio
Rovigo	45	RO	Veneto
Salerno	84	SA	Campania
Sassari *	0701-0719, 071-073, 08020	SS	Sardegna (Sardinia)
Savona	17	SV	Liguria
Siena	53	SI	Toscana (Toscany)
Siracusa ‡	96	SR	Sicilia (Sicily)
Sondrio	230, 231	SO	Lombardia (Lombardy)
Sud Sardegna *	09010-09049, 09090, 09100	SU	Sardegna (Sardinia)
Taranto	74	TA	Puglia
Teramo	64	TE	Abruzzo
Terni	05	TR	Umbria
Torino #	10	TO	Piemonte (Piedmont)
Trapani ‡	91	TP	Sicilia (Sicily)
Trento	38	TN	Trentino-Alto Adige
Treviso	31	TV	Veneto
Varese	21	VA	Lombardia (Lombardy)
Venezia #	30	VE	Veneto
Verbano-Cúsio-Ossola	288, 289	VB	Piemonte (Piedmont)
Vercelli	130, 131	VC	Piemonte (Piedmont)
Verona	37	VR	Veneto
Vibo-Valentia	898, 899	VV	Calabria
Vicenza	36	VI	Veneto
Viterbo	01	VT	Lazio

   This regions/postal code data can be acquired as a data file 

Administrative districts graphic

From 19^th June 1998, area codes for all geographic numbers in Italy have effectively disappeared, each number being the old area code and subscriber’s number together, including the initial ‘0’. The initial ‘0’ (and the old area code) is now always dialled, even when the number being dialled is in the same area code district. The ‘0’ is also dialled when calling from abroad. Note that ‘free’ numbers, which can only be called from within Italy, do not commence with an initial ‘0’.

Mobile numbers commence with a 3.

   Tables of telephone number information/formats can be acquired – see http://www.grcdi.nl/telephone.htm