Hosting non-Italian Citizens
How many of you travel back to Italy on holiday, with your partner or children, or even with friends who are not Italian citizens? Our guess is probably quite a few.
Yet if you enter Italy and stay there even with your family, the person hosting you (or rather the ‘foreign’ citizen) is obliged to declare this to the local police station within 48 hours.
This article (in Italian) explains how this needs to be done, but in essence, it can be done either in person, by sending the relevant form and copies of the ID by registered post, or, more efficiently, by using a PEC (Electronic Certified Email) sending the pertinent information to your local police station. Failure to register the visiting foreign citizen may incur a fine of up to Eu1000, so not worth the risk. This procedure applies regardless of your connection with the visitor in question. If your wife doesn’t have an Italian passport, the host will need to register her too.
When you are visiting hotels or similar, the establishments in question carry out the registration procedure on your behalf. This is why you are asked to leave the documents as the process is typically done in the evening by the duty porters so that you can pick up your documents the following morning.
More information on the guest registration process can generally be obtained by ringing the local police station (Questura)