Did you know...? Italy has one of the world’s most powerful passports
Italy is renowned as one of the world's top tourist destinations, but less well known is that holding an Italian passport also gives you privileged access to a host of other countries.
From Marco Polo to Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci, Italy has produced some world-famous explorers and navigators down the centuries - so it seems fitting that Italians have one of the world's strongest passports today.
According to VisaGuide.World's 2024 Passport Index, which ranks 199 countries' passports according to a range of factors, Italy has the world's second most powerful passport after Singapore.
READ ALSO: How foreigners can get ‘fast track’ citizenship in Italy
It's followed by Spain, France and Germany, with Hungary, Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium rounding out the top ten.
The score is based on criteria including how many countries the passport allows you to travel to without a visa, whether a destination allows you to buy a visa on arrival, and whether any countries have blacklisted your passport altogether.
An Italian passport allows you to travel to 161 countries visa-free, 44 countries with only an ID card, and 20 countries on an e-Visa (which can be bought online).
READ ALSO: Did you know...? There's an Italian region that doesn't exist
By comparison, a Singaporean passport will get you into 167 countries and territories without a visa, and a US passport, all the way down in 39th place, into 151.
A powerful passport is a nice perk of being an Italian national - but if you're not born Italian and don't have Italian ancestry, Italy doesn't make it easy to acquire citizenship.
READ ALSO: Will my children get an Italian passport if born in Italy?
You'll need ten years of uninterrupted residency in Italy to naturalise or two years of marriage to an Italian citizen (three, if you live abroad) before you're eligible to begin the application process, which can take years.
Find out more about applying for an Italian passport.
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From Marco Polo to Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci, Italy has produced some world-famous explorers and navigators down the centuries - so it seems fitting that Italians have one of the world's strongest passports today.
According to VisaGuide.World's 2024 Passport Index, which ranks 199 countries' passports according to a range of factors, Italy has the world's second most powerful passport after Singapore.
READ ALSO: How foreigners can get ‘fast track’ citizenship in Italy
It's followed by Spain, France and Germany, with Hungary, Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium rounding out the top ten.
The score is based on criteria including how many countries the passport allows you to travel to without a visa, whether a destination allows you to buy a visa on arrival, and whether any countries have blacklisted your passport altogether.
An Italian passport allows you to travel to 161 countries visa-free, 44 countries with only an ID card, and 20 countries on an e-Visa (which can be bought online).
READ ALSO: Did you know...? There's an Italian region that doesn't exist
By comparison, a Singaporean passport will get you into 167 countries and territories without a visa, and a US passport, all the way down in 39th place, into 151.
A powerful passport is a nice perk of being an Italian national - but if you're not born Italian and don't have Italian ancestry, Italy doesn't make it easy to acquire citizenship.
READ ALSO: Will my children get an Italian passport if born in Italy?
You'll need ten years of uninterrupted residency in Italy to naturalise or two years of marriage to an Italian citizen (three, if you live abroad) before you're eligible to begin the application process, which can take years.
Find out more about applying for an Italian passport.
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