Italian law-register with local police??
 

Hello,
My work gave me some paperwork to read from the state dept in regards to Italy. It said, besides the valid passport of course, that under Italian law tourists are required to register with local police & obtain a "permesso do soggiorno" (permit to stay" within 8 working days of arrival, regardless of the intended length of stay. We will be moving around every 3 days or so. Has anyone heard of this or have done it?? http://www.italiantourism.com

Panic not. It is indeed true that toursits must be registered with the Police, however your hotel will do will do this for you. When you check in, the receptionist will take your passport for a couple of hours or overnight. This is so he/she can do the paperwork required. That's it!

If you're not staying in a hotel, I wouldn't worry anyway. I've been to Italy 6 times this year already and haven't bothered to register with them once. They've got far more important things to do.

Your hotel does it for you - that is why they may ask to keep your passport for a few hours or until the next morning.

:) posting at the exact same time w/ the same info -- great minds!!

In some cases the passport is only kept long enough for the front desk folks to photocopy the info page and hand it back to you.

Yes, I know there ARE some people who are paranoid about that but when you figure the alternative is having it kept for a "few hours" much less overnight during which you have no idea what is being done with it or to it the photocopying routine seems pretty, well, routine.

Thanks for the great info. Since I already put a few copies of our passports in our bags, I think I will make sure I have one for each hotel, that way they should not have to keep ours. At least worth a try. Thank you!

They will want your original and there is nothing to worry about.