Pet Travel to & Within Italy

How to Travel to Italy with Your Pets

If you're trying to bring your pets with you on your Italian vacation or are relocating here like we did, there are a few things you need to know in order to ensure your travel day goes smoothly.

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Vaccination & Paperwork Requirements

The first step to getting your pet ready to travel with you to Italy is to make sure you have all of their paperwork. Just like you need to check your visa requirements, your pet needs to check their vaccination requirements.

If you're coming from a non-high risk rabies country, all your pet needs to enter Italy is:

• An up-to-date rabies vaccination
• A microchip
• A current health certificate: this is a document written by your vet stating that your pet is healthy enough to travel.
• A pet passport: this pet passport should be from your pet's country of origin. For example, Bandido arrived in Italy with a Vietnamese passport and Monti arrived with a Montenegrin passport.

If coming from a country that is seen as a high risk for rabies, you'll also need a Titre test. You'll have to wait 3 months after this test in order to travel. Both Bandido and Monti come from "high risk" countries and have needed a Titre test to travel. It's a basic blood work exam and nothing too extravagant. You just need to plan ahead for this one, if applicable.

Read more about the specific requirements directly from the Italian government here.

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Travel Options

You have some options when arriving in Italy with your pet. You can arrive with them via airplane, car, bus, train, or even ferry.

Pretty much, each of these travel options will require the same documents and vaccinations as above. In our experience, airlines are the most cautious and particular when checking documents.

Air Travel

If flying with your pet, you need to keep a few things in mind. The most important is the size of your animal. Unless you have a guide dog or emotional support pet, your pet will need to be able to fit under the seat in front of you in order to travel in cabin with you.

Most airlines have a weight limit on this and require the pet + carrier to be 8 kg/17.5 lb or below in order to fly in cabin. Of course there are variations of this number but from experience, this seems to be the most common ask.

If your pet is too large, he or she will need to fly in cargo. Bandido is 11 kg and too big to travel in cabin with us. Twice he's flown cargo.

I'll be honest, it's a nerve-wracking experience. We've only done this when crossing oceans for moves (Vietnam to the US, US to Albania) and when there were no other travel options. I can say from personal experience that Bandido was just fine and after getting out of the crate on the other side, acted as though nothing happened.

I won't go into detail on how to prepare them for this as there are loads of guides and I want to stay focused on Italy for this article but I will leave you with this piece of advice:

Only fly your pets in cargo if you don't have another option (aka crossing an ocean) and you'll be in your destination indefinitely or for a long period of time. Don't fly your pets in cargo for a weekend trip or when you could have taken the train.

Public Transportation

For entering Italy via public transportation, the only thing you'll need to look out for is if the train, bus, or ferry is pet-friendly.

From experience, I've noticed that all overnight cabins on trains are and many buses have size or weight limits on your pet.

Driving Yourself to Italy

There are obviously no restrictions to driving your own pet to Italy. Just know that either at the Italian border or EU border, you'll likely be asked for your pet's paperwork.

Although this never happened to us, you might be asked to get your pets out of the car to be examined by someone in-person at the border.

The most we've ever been asked for is to pull over and roll down the windows but just know it's a normal possibility.

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Staying Long-Term

Last but certainly not least is an extra step for those who are moving to Italy or if your pets will be staying longer than 3 months.

Upon arrival, you'll have 3 months to make an appointment for your pets to get an EU pet passport. I recommend making your appointment as soon as possible though after arrival, just in case it takes a few weeks to get an appointment.

All we had to do was go to a pharmacy and ask that they make us this appointment. We brought our pet's paperwork with us. We called and asked a local vet which pharmacy we should go to but you could probably figure it out through trial and error if you prefer.

On the day of the appointment, I took both pets and all of their paperwork to the government building. The vet there checked them, their documents, and their vaccinations and within a few weeks, they had their very own EU passports (if only it was that easy for people!).

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How to Travel within Italy with Your Pets

Traveling within Italy with your pets is actually pretty wonderful. As I mentioned in the intro, this has been the most pet-friendly country I've ever been with my dog and cat in (out of 8 countries).

For the most part, Italians love animals. People seem genuinely pleased to see Bandido waiting patiently at the coffee shop or Monti proudly walking on his leash like the dog he thinks he is.

It does help that both of our pets are well trained, aren't noisy, and prefer their personal space (rather than jumping on every stranger they see). Also, Bandido is only 11kg, which is pretty average here. I have seen much bigger dogs but as most people in cities live in apartments, smaller dogs are more common.

That said, there are a few rules to abide by and each city might vary slightly.

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Public Transportation

From my experience, pets are allowed on public transportation. This is based on our experience living in Trieste but also traveling the country with them.

Some buses or ferries might ask that your dog wear a muzzle, so I would come prepared for that.

On buses, metros, and ferries our pets have been able to travel for free. On regional trains, Monti the cat travels for free as he can fit inside of a carrier. Bandido is slightly too big for that so we do have to buy him a "ticket."

Usually these tickets are around €5 and can be purchased via the app when you buy your own tickets (I love Trainline and typically recommend it but within Italy you can't purchase pet tickets via the app). You'll need the direct booking app for the specific train company instead or you can purchase in-person.

From experience, I wouldn't use Italo trains when traveling with your pet. The pet tickets on this train tend to be far more expensive.

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Pet-Friendly Hotels/Rentals

In general, we haven't had too hard of a time finding either a pet-friendly lease or short-term rentals or hotels when traveling with Bandido and Monti.

That said, it does lessen our options but compared to other countries, there are more pet-friendly options than we're used to seeing.

We typically use Booking.com to book accommodation and just turn on the pet-friendly option.

The dog is pretty easy but the cat sometimes requires some convincing. Monti wears nail caps (plastic nail covers that you can glue on like a woman's acrylic nails - pictured above). This prevents him from scratching us while riding on our shoulders but also from damaging any hotels. At times we've been able to circumnavigate the rule by sending pictures of Monti's nail caps.

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Italian Culture Towards Pets

As I've mentioned, Italians love their pets. It's really common for people to bring their dogs with them to the bar, restaurant, coffee shop, or even some grocery stores.

Monti is the only traveling cat we've seen thus far but he gets so much attention and excitement that I know people love seeing him, too.

They're typically treated as members of the family and are well-loved and well-behaved. The pet-friendly grocery store nearby gets so excited when Bandido comes shopping with me that they also shave him some fresh prosciutto, even if I'm not buying meat for myself!

More people in our neighborhood know our pets' names than they do ours. Personally, that's my ideal vibe.

I've also seen that big cities like Rome are starting to offer pet-sitting services at popular museums so pet parents can enjoy the museum, knowing their pets are in good hands. I think this perfectly explains how important pets are that you know longer have to make the decision if you should bring your pet out or go to the museum yourself.

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Pet Socialization

The last thing to keep in mind when traveling in Italy with your dog is that not all owners want their dogs to socialize.

We typically let Bandido smell a dog that passes by at the park or at the street but some owners really don't like that. The best piece of advice I can give here is to follow the other owner's lead, especially if you don't speak Italian.

Speaking of Italian though, there will likely be a question you'll get asked often: è maschio o femmina? Which means, is it male or female? People tend to be a little weird about male dogs socializing (I think due to the fact that not many are spade here) so it's a good one to know the answer to. I get asked this question at least twice every time I go out with Bandido.

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Will Your Pet Travel to Italy With You?

Personally, I think the answer should be yes.

But I would keep in mind that if you plan to bring them around with you everywhere like we do, make sure you trust your pet and know they'll be a good boy or girl. Since people are so used to seeing dogs everywhere, they're certainly used to, but do hold them to a certain standard and expect them to behave when inside restaurants or other places.