Why Use a VPN in Italy?
Italy has some of the strongest content libraries in Europe but also blocks certain categories of sites at the ISP level, including some gambling platforms and torrent sites. Italian ISPs are required by law to retain connection logs for 12 months. Public Wi-Fi in Italy, especially at airports, train stations, and tourist accommodation, is often unsecured and monitored. A VPN addresses all three of these issues.
Italy is also a useful VPN base for travelers who want to keep accessing Italian streaming services (Rai Play, Mediaset Play) while abroad.
Best VPNs for Italy
1. NordVPN
NordVPN operates servers in Milan and Rome with consistently fast speeds. Its no-log policy has been independently audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte. The service unblocks Rai Play and Mediaset Play reliably from Italian servers when traveling abroad. NordVPN also offers Threat Protection, a feature that blocks malicious domains and some trackers at the DNS level, which is useful on Italian public Wi-Fi. Two-year plans bring the price down to competitive levels.
2. ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN has Italian servers in Rome and performs well for streaming Italian content from outside the country. Its TrustedServer technology runs all servers on RAM only, which means no data is written to disk between sessions. ExpressVPN is more expensive than NordVPN but has a slightly better track record for maintaining streaming access when platforms update their geo-blocking. If Rai Play is the primary use case, ExpressVPN is the safer choice.
3. Surfshark
Surfshark allows unlimited simultaneous connections, making it useful for Italian households or small businesses where multiple devices need protection. Italian servers are available in Milan. Surfshark is the most affordable of the three on long-term plans and includes a CleanWeb feature that blocks ads and trackers. The speeds are slightly below NordVPN and ExpressVPN on Italian servers but acceptable for streaming HD video.
Italy VPN Use Cases
Accessing Rai Play abroad: Connect to an Italian server, clear cookies, load Rai Play. Both NordVPN and ExpressVPN handle this reliably. Some servers in the pool may be blocked; try different servers if the first fails.
Public Wi-Fi security: Italian tourist areas, airports, and train stations offer free Wi-Fi that is unencrypted. Any VPN on this list protects your traffic from other users on the same network.
Bypassing ISP blocks: Italian ISPs block some gambling sites and piracy sites. A VPN routes around these blocks by connecting through a server outside Italy.
Remote work from Italy: If you are a digital nomad working from Italy and need to access resources in your home country, a VPN with servers in your home country maintains that access without interruption.
Is a VPN Legal in Italy?
VPNs are fully legal in Italy for personal and business use. There are no restrictions on VPN technology or privacy tools under Italian law. Italy is a member of the EU, so the GDPR applies to data handling by any VPN provider offering services in Italy, which gives you additional consumer protections compared to using a provider based outside the EU.