Security Services in Italy

Italy’s nine cities on this network split into three distinct security pictures: Rome and Milan carry the country’s highest-profile terrorism and HNWI-targeting risk; Florence, Verona, Bologna and Turin are lower-tempo, tourism- and trade-fair-driven markets; and Naples, Genoa and Palermo each carry a specific local complication, organised crime background, difficult terrain, and elevated property crime respectively. The licensing framework is national and constant across all nine.

TULPS: the licensing backbone

Italy regulates private security through the Testo Unico delle Leggi di Pubblica Sicurezza, a Royal Decree from 1931 that still governs the sector today alongside its 1940 implementing regulation. An individual only becomes a guardia particolare giurata, a sworn private guard, once the Prefetto in their province has approved the appointment against a confirmed employment relationship with an authorised security institute. That appointment then sits under the ongoing supervisory authority of the Questore, the provincial police chief. It runs for two years at a time and has to be actively renewed.

What that means practically for a client hiring in Italy: a guard’s status is not a lifetime credential. Confirming that an operator’s appointment is current, not merely that they once held one, is worth the five minutes it takes.

Firearms: authorised, not standard for close protection

A firearms licence can be applied for alongside the TULPS appointment renewal, at a reduced rate under Legislative Decree 527/1992 and its 1996 implementing rules. The Questura’s Ufficio Armi reviews each application. In practice, though, armed authorisation concentrates on cash-in-transit runs, banking and site-guarding work. Close protection delivered for corporate travellers and HNWI principals across Rome, Milan and the other seven cities here is, in the large majority of cases, unarmed: route planning, liaison with local police, and disciplined movement do most of the work.

Terrorism rating and everyday reality

FCDO rates Italy’s terrorism threat as high, a rating that sits mainly on Rome’s symbolic weight as the seat of government and home to the Vatican, and on Milan’s international transport and event profile. Away from that national-level assessment, what a visiting executive is actually far more likely to encounter is organised pickpocketing: at Termini station in Rome, on Milan’s Fashion Week fringes, or around the Duomo in Florence. The planning effort goes toward the low-probability risk; the practical exposure sits with the high-probability one.

Source: TESTO UNICO DELLE LEGGI DI PUBBLICA SICUREZZA (TULPS), Royal Decree 773/1931 (Ministero dell’Interno, consolidated text). FCDO Travel Advice: Italy (2026). Questura, Ufficio Armi (firearms licensing guidance, 2026).

Vetted operators across Italy provide bodyguard hire and executive protection, all held to TULPS licensing standards under the relevant Prefetto and Questura. For a city-level threat and regulatory briefing, see our Rome close protection guide or the Milan security briefing.