In our recent newsletter Inside Italy: How to avoid the mistakes I made when going to an Italian doctor, The Local Italy’s editor Clare Speak wrote about the successes and pitfalls of her experiences with the Italian healthcare system. Readers told us the system takes some getting used to, but said personal relationships with local doctors often make up for the bureaucracy.
Rupert Dodds praised his local practice in the north: “I live in Piemonte. Overall we are very happy with the accessibility and quality of healthcare here.
“The online facilities are good – I also like how our family doctor answers her own phone and is very responsive by phone and email. After seven years, I feel she knows our medical and family history well.”
Dennis Curry said that although his “local doctor often spends his time talking to his wife during appointments", he finds him responsive: “I do have his WhatsApp Number. It’s really great as he will normally answer within a couple of hours.”
Geography also appears to play a significant role in the quality of care received. Mary Austern noted that while “the system appears a bit opaque at the outset”, during a recent hospitalisation, she “found the professionalism/competency of staff top to bottom to be on the whole, excellent.”
However, she added that this may, “of course, depend on location: my experience was in a fairly well-staffed urban center.”
'You must have a lot of patience'
In ‘Horrific’: What it’s like applying for Italy’s residency permit, we spoke to Italy’s foreign residents who described waiting years to receive their ‘permesso di soggiorno’ residency permits as the country’s administrative backlog worsens.
Their accounts suggest a system under immense strain, where professional intervention is increasingly becoming a necessity rather than a luxury.
Ray Edward Harris shared a particularly gruelling timeline: “I applied for my renewal residency permit in December 2023 in Pisa and I received mine in December 2025. The processes for permits are very slow in Italy and most of these people don’t care about foreigners. After waiting for about 20 months, I hired an Italian lawyer. My advice is that you must have a lot of patience.”
Wes Isley said: “My experience was much more positive, and I attribute that to the local translator we hired here (Vasto, Abruzzo). She knows the system and local officials, so she knew when to go and who to talk to.
“I had my permesso within three months, and the process was super smooth.”
Max Alexander also had a more positive experience: “I had better luck. After waiting more than a year for my first elective residency permesso, and assuming it would arrive expired, when I went to pick it up at my local Rome police station, they had made it valid for three years. No idea why.”
‘Speculators are pushing locals out'
In our explainer on What's changed about Italy's short-term rental rules in 2026, we wrote about how many parts of Italy are pushing back against the rising number of short-term rentals with new rules, and steep penalties for those who don't follow them.
Paul C. argued that restrictions should not apply to those from within the EU bloc. “There are many valid, non-tourist reasons for short term rentals such as trying to find work and not having a long term lease hanging on you while you are seeking employment.”
However, the sheer volume of listings is a point of contention for many. Kris noted: “I was shocked to see when looking for an apartment in a small Italian city, one company had 70 apartments listed while another had 40.
“We refuse to stay in apartments where a company has multiple dwellings in a city.”
Luigi V was more critical of the impact on the local social fabric, calling for much stricter intervention: “I searched rentals in Chiavari — two pages, over 90 percent short‑term listings.
“Across Italy, useless laws and greed lets speculators and foreign buyers snap up homes then rent them short‑term year‑round, pushing locals out. This erodes community life.”
The common thread: patience, local connections, and luck all matter as much as following official procedures for Italy’s international community.
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