_____ _____ Italy

Global Sourcebook for International Data Management

                                         by Graham Rhind

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Italy

Global Sourcebook | Index | Properties

ITALY
ITALY

For supplementary information, see links to post office home pages here External, to postal code pages here External and to other personal name and addressing issues pages here External.

Table of Contents

Italy - Country information

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Local short name form

Official name

Area

Population

58 989 749 (2024 evaluation) [1]

Capital

Currency

International telephone access code

39

ISO 3166 country codes

Car nationality plate code

I

Internet country code

IT

GRC Country Code

ITA

Italy - Number format

   1.234,45

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

Italy - Date and time formats

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   Note: This section last updated 2nd May 2021
   dd/mm/yyyy

The 24-hour clock notation is used.

   14:32

Italy - Languages

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

There are 2 230 speakers of Cimbrian External (a Germanic dialect) in Trentino-Alto-Adige; 3 400 speakers of several dialects of Walser External, 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 External and Provençal (in the Aosta Valley and other valleys of upper Piedmont); 1 900 speakers of Mócheno External, 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 External. Corsican External is spoken on the island of Maddalena off the north-east coast of Sardinia. Ligurian External, an Italian dialect, is spoken by some 1 800 000 people in Liguria; Lombard External, also an Italian dialect, by some 8 600 000 people in Lombardy, and similarly Sicilian External is spoken by 4 700 000 people on Sicily and Venetian External by 2 100 000 people around Venetia.

image 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.

image A bilingual Italian/Catalan street name, Alghero, Sardinia

Italy - For the attention of

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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.

Italy - Personal names and forms of address

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   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 External, surnames/family names External, family name prefixes External, forms of address External, job titles External

Italy - Company names

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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

Italy - Company legal forms

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   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 External

Italy - Addresses

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   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:

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or

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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.

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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

image 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 External

Building indicators

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Below is a list of the most commonly occurring building indicators, with the abbreviated form(s) which you are most likely to find in address databases:

Italian Abbreviation English
Casa Ca., Ca’ House
Chiesa   Church
Municipio   Town Hall
Stazione   Station
   Comprehensive tables of these strings can be acquired – see http:www.grcdi.nl/addresses.htm External

Thoroughfare types

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Below is a list of the most commonly occurring thoroughfare types, with the abbreviated form(s) which you are most likely to find in address databases:

accesso  
androne  
archivolto  
arco  
bacino  
baglio  
bastioni  
belvedere  
borgata  
borghetto  
borgo  
calata  
caletta  
calle c., c.l
campazzo  
campiello  
campo c.po
chiasso  
clivo  
colle  
contrada c.da
corte  
cortile  
corso c, cso, c.so
diramazione  
discesa  
fondamenta fond.
frazione fraz, fr
galleria  
giardino  
gradinata  
gradini  
isola  
largo lgo
lungo  
lungofiume (fiume can be replaced with the name of a river, such as lungarno or lungo Po)  
lungolago (lago can be replaced with the name of a lake)  
lungomare (mare can be replaced with the name of a sea)  
molo  
mura  
parco  
passaggio  
passeggiata  
passetto  
passo  
piazza p, p.za
piazzale p.le
piazzetta  
poggio  
ponte  
porta  
portici  
quadrato  
quartiere  
ramo  
rampa  
rio  
rio terrà  
rione  
ripa  
riviera  
rotonda  
ruga  
salita  
salizzada sal.
scala  
scalinata  
scalo  
sentiero  
sito  
sottopassaggio  
sottoportego  
sottoportico  
spianata  
strada  
strada comunale  
strada privata  
strada provinciale  
Strada Statale, Superstrada SS (national route with km number)
strada vicinale  
stradella  
stradone  
traversa  
valle  
varco  
via v
viale vie, vl
vialetto  
vico  
vicoletto  
vicolo  
viuzzo  
volta  
   Comprehensive tables of these strings can be acquired – see http:www.grcdi.nl/addresses.htm External

Other elements commonly found in address databases

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NB: The form which certain common words take in Italian depends on a number of factors such as the gender of the following word, whether the next word is the definite article, whether the first letter of the next word is a vowel or a consonant, and whether that consonant is a z, gr, ps or an s+consonant. As this is rather complex, no explanation is given for each form but, where more than one form exists, each form is given.

il/i/l’/gli/gl’/lo/la/le the
un/uno/una/un’ a, an
e and
fino a, sino a till, until
per for
di of
del/dei/dell’/degli /dello/della/delle of the
per, a, in to, towards
al/allo/alla/ai/agli/alle towards the
presso, vicino a, accanto a near, by, next to
su/sullo/sulle/sui/sugli/sulle on (sea, a river), over
sul/sulla/sullo/sulle/sugli/sui on the
in in
nel/nello/nella/negli/nei/nelle in the
in faccia a, di fronte (a), dirimpetto (a) opposite
dietro, dopo, addietro, didietro behind
davanti a, dinanzi a in front of
fra, tra between
sotto under
sopra over
con with
nuovo, nuova, nuovi, nuove new
vecchio, vecchia, vecchi, vecchie old
corto, corta, corti, corte short
lungo, lunga, lunghi, lunghe long
grande, grandi large
piccolo, piccola, piccoli, piccole small
nord, del nord, settentrionale north
est, dell’est, orientale east
ovest, dell’ovest, occidentale west
sud, del sud, meridionale south
San (masculine), Santa (feminine), Sant’ (before a vowel), Santo (before a masculine name beginning with a z, ps or s+consonant; e.g., Santo Stefano) (abbreviated to S., St., Sta.) Saint
Zona Industriale industrial estate

Post office box

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This is written as Casella Postale, abbreviated to CP.

Italy - Postal codes

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   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 External

Italy - Postal code format graphic

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Italy - Postal code format

Italy - Postal code specifics

Italy - Postal code regular expression

\A([0-3|5|8][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]|4[0-8][0-9][0-9][0-9]|6[0-7][0-9][0-9][0-9]|7[0-5][0-9][0-9][0-9]|9[0-8][0-9][0-9][0-9])\Z

Italy - Postal code level of coverage

3

Italy - Postal code map

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This map reflects the situation as it was in 1998. The borders of the provinces have changed but the postal code zones have remained constant.

Place names in Italy

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

Italy - Administrative districts

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

Administrative districts graphic

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Telephone numbers in Italy

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From 19th 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.

References

  1. ^ citypopulation.de/en/italy/admin/ External 20240430

Every effort is made to keep this resource updated. If you find any errors, or have any questions or requests, please don't hesitate to contact the author.

All information copyright Graham Rhind 2024. Any information used should be acknowledged and referenced.