Well, I apologize for the "shouting" but hopefully she heard me!

I'm kinda lost here with intrepid's earlier message re:
>>>As to the "national ramifications"....hmmmm, I doubt there will be any international incidents over this.<<<

What's the "national ramificationss" that's being referred to?

When I wanted to travel to the USA with a passport with two months left on it, I was told by the Dutch consulate that I would not be let into the USA without the required 6 months left on my passport. They were absolutely certain about this, so I got it sorted out quickly (and costly!). The Italian immigration officials might be more lenient than the US immigration, but I would not count on this.

I'm American and traveled from the US to both UK and Spain with less than 6 months on my passport (going) and no one anywhere batted an eye. So Willtravel may be right that it's an airline's rule as it isn't Spain's rule. I was just a typical tourist on a 10 day vacation, no one said anything about the date--the date when I left the US was about 4-1/2 mo. from the expiration date of my passport.

Although I kind of wonder how an airline can make up a rule to forbid you to go somewhere if that country itself does not. Something not right about that.

Marci,
What's the status? Have you gotten a "final answer" regarding the passport?

so, our passports are only valid for six months less than they state....?

if you have a return ticket WAY before expiration.. what is the problem?
imagine they said the same about driver's licenses.

rules are rules, but this is all new to me.

still waiting to hear the first hand "turned away" story.

"The Italian immigration might be more lenient than the US immigration but I wouldn't count on this"

I would. In many trips to Italy I've yet to be fingerprinted, photographed, have my suitcase searched, be obliged to produce my hotel address, be quizzed about why I'm entering the country and whether I'm really sure I'm going to leave again, have to state my profession...the list goes on...

Well, I have been quizzed extensively when traveling to Europe. (My luggage has not been serached, but it is very routine to ask for your hotel information etc.)

Well after calling the Italian Embassy (in DC) again and getting the same answer we drove to Miami last night to one of the main passport offices to renew his passport. Miami is one of the few places that does expediated passports. We figured since it was an Italian law, we should trust the Italians.
We got an appointment at the passport office for this morning at 8.
After presenting the required info my hubby was told he could get his passport in 3 days. After showing his flight itenerary and some serious "you must be kidding me's" they changed the pick up time to today. We had to wait several hours, but did leave with a new passport. 14 hour car trip for 11 hours in Miami. YUCK! But we will rest easier...
For what its worth, the officials in Miami seemed very familiar with this issue and said they routinely did renewals for this reason.
No, I still have not talked to anyone personally who has been turned away for not having "extra" validity on their passport.
Quite honestly I'm flabbergasted that there isn't a totally relyable source of info on this issue. It just seems too important to get such conflicting stories.
Thanks again for providing those links to passport expediation services. We did call one other one who was totally booked. In the end we just weren't comfortable with mailing the exsisting passport away and relying on FedEx. We didn't have any time as a buffer if the mail was delayed. We figured driving would suck, but worst case scenerio we could play dumb and at least have a passport...

I guess I should also comment that we did call the airline (Northwest) who had no idea what we were talking about.

Oh, and one more thing....
Obviously I checked with the airline (but more importantly my Doctor) about flying while pregnant.
Northwest's website states that to fly within 30 days of delivery you must have a doctors note. My doctors recommendation is much more stringent that that!
Plus, I don't want to be waddling around Italy--this is supposed to be a vacation after all! :)

WOO-HOO! I am so glad you got it sorted out, Marci! I know the drive and the wait was a pain, but I couldn't imagine the stress I would feel on the plane there - and the end of the vacation about coming back. I know the hours spent resolving the situation will equal many more stress-free hours on vacation.

I'll stop worrying about you now! :-)

Have a WONDERFUL trip!

Good for you Marci!! Have a great trip!!

Marci...glad you got it worked out.
however, how is a person to know these rules? and I still think if you call 10 people, consulates, government etc you will get 10 different answers. As far as you knew, your old passpost was valid. THere is just no consistancy. In fact I called the Italian/Germany,Austrian embassy and consulates...once got a little "girl" receptionist? who told me 6 months, then checked with someone else who said 3 months..and on and on. I wonder if they really do check the passports. Well, it's easy for me to sit here at home and not have YOUR worry (as when we discovered the same problem, we had 6 weeks before traveling and got new passports.).
So ...You at least will leave on your nice trip without that worry, and you must feel good knowing you did the right thing. Have a wonderful, fun, safe trip.

Hello Marci, how nice of you to post back here and let everyone know the end results. I have thought about you all day. I know you must be tired but at least when you leave for Italy Sunday you will be relaxed and not have any worries.

Have a beautiful trip in Italy. My best wishes to you.

I hope Marci is happily in Italy now.

I saw this post on Flyertalk, and I realize that it's about Taiwan, not Italy. So I realize it's off-topic for Europe. But I found it interesting nonetheless in respect to what can happen if you have less than six months on your passport and the country decides to be strict about its regulations:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4100770

THAT is scary! I thought the worst would be immigration turning them away and not allowing entry. But, to me held overnight in a holding cell! Yikes! No one needs that stress - in particular a pregnant lady. I'm sure Marci will be VERY glad they drove to Miami to get the passport renewed when she reads this later.

lincasanova, does this meet your criteria as an authentic first hand turn-away story?

So pleased you made it..
My experience of Italian officials is that:
a) They are unable to make any decision
b) They will always pass the decision making up the chain of command until the Italian Ministry sits on it for a few months
c)Their beaurocracy is so stupid that they will end up telling you absolutely nothing about progress of your problem thus tangling you and themselves in such a mess that you probably won't want to go there anyway.
And they will think it too much hastle to bother so let you proceed anyway, a contact in Italy I know always tells me "if you don't tell me about it I won't do anything about it, and if you tell me I probably won't hear"

However the 6 months left on passport is usually in case of medical emergency and the inability to re patriate you if you were in an accident etc and that is the case in most countries these days.

Muck

I thought now that we are back, I would leave one final update on this situation for posterity ;)

This is quite unbelievable...
They did not check our passports upon arrival in Italy. Yup, that's right. No one even looked at them.
We followed all the signs to customs in the airport. We get there, and there is not line, but one man is having his bag searched. Two official security personnel look and my husband and I, and say the ever elusive Italian word---Prego--- and point for us to keep on going. :)

(When we flew out of Rome, we did get our passport stamped. )

Marci, that is unbelievable. Thanks for sharing.

A day or two after you left someone posted a report of a woman spending the night in police custody because of the same passport problem. We were happy y'all didn't have to worry about that! :-)