Question:

Hotels in Italy take your passport?

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I've read that a hotel in Italy is required to take your passport and may keep it as much as a day or two? Is this true? I've always been under the impression that you never let your passport out of your sight? My first night in Italy will be a one night stay before I leave for another city.

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  1. Hotels in Italy are required to register all their guests with the local police. (This is an anti-terrorism effort that predates Sept. 11 and I believe is related to internal terrorism from the 1970s). Therefore, hotels take your passport long enough to fill out a form with pertinent information.

    Generally a hotel will keep your passport and give it back to you later or at check out, but upon request they can fill out the information immediately and then give your passport back to you right away. (Usually they just don't want to make you wait and that's why they keep it while you go to your room).

    A little tip: Yes, you shouldn't let your passport out of your sight, but remember it is much easier to replace a passport at an embassy or consulate than it is to get a replacement drivers license for driving or other important documents. A good idea is to get a color photocopy of your passport, laminate it and carry that around with you.


  2. I just came back from a vacation in Italy a couple weeks ago.  We were in 4 different hotels during the trip.  The hotel staff did take our passports upon check-in and wrote down info, made copies, and gave them back (when we asked for them) to us the next time we went to the desk to drop our key off as we went out.  We were never without our passport for more than an hour.

    Hope this helps!

  3. I know that in the past, most foreign hotels kept your passport, and then returned it to you upon checking out.

  4. Hotels here in Italy take your passport and make a photocopy - often you get the passport back on the spot. Sometimes you have to wait 15 to 20 minutes if it's busy. You can go to the desk and ask to get it back. All visitors in Italy have to register with the Questura of the city where they are staying within 8 days of arrival to apply for a permesso di soggiorno (permission to stay). This isn't visible to most tourists because the hotels copy the passport and report the information.

    If you cross an international boundary on a night train and you're in a sleeping car, the conductor will take your passport and return it the next morning.

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