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. It runs for two years at a time and has to be actively renewed. The TULPS creates no licence for private close protection: article 133 limits guardie giurate to guarding property, and article 134 bars a licence for operations that limit individual freedom.

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: tied to guarding property

With the approval, the Prefetto may also issue a licence to carry arms at a reduced fee (TULPS article 138). That licence goes with a role that guards property. 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), Regio Decreto 773/1931, articles 133, 134 and 138 (text checked 6 October 2026). FCDO Travel Advice: Italy (2026).

Vetted operators across Italy provide bodyguard hire and executive protection, working through companies licensed under the TULPS by the relevant Prefetto. For a city-level threat and regulatory briefing, see our Rome close protection guide or the Milan security briefing.