Step-by-step guides, and stories from people who have already been through it.
6 items
Italian law guarantees urgent and essential care to people without a residence permit, and forbids reporting them to the police. The tool is called the STP code: you ask for it at the ASL or at a hospital, it lasts six months and can be renewed.
Checked on 11 Sep 2026
Registering with the National Health Service gives you the right to choose a family doctor: it is free, visits at their surgery cost nothing, and they are the one who writes prescriptions and referrals for tests. Changing doctor requires no explanation.
Checked on 11 Sep 2026
If you are not an Italian citizen, your tessera sanitaria (health card) lasts as long as your residence permit. Once you renew the permit, the new card is not sent automatically: you have to go back to the ASL and renew your registration. Here is how, and what to do if you lost the card.
Checked on 11 Sep 2026
If you work under a regular contract, registering with the SSN costs nothing and covers your dependent family members too. The € 2,000 a year contribution people talk about applies only to those who fall outside those cases.
Checked on 9 Sep 2026
INPS issues it and it does one precise thing: transport, culture and leisure free or at reduced cost by showing a card, without producing certificates every time. It is valid in Italy and in other EU countries.
Checked on 9 Sep 2026
Primary school textbooks are free by law throughout Italy: in Milan the voucher is electronic, you go to a bookshop with the child's tax code and the class book list and they hand them over. Meals, on the other hand, must be applied for, and the window closed on 31 July — but anyone who missed it can still enrol at any time. You need the ISEE, ten days.
Checked on 4 Sep 2026
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