Carta d' Identita

Carta d'Identita

In Italy, by law everyone is required to carry at all times an official identity document. And you often have to show it - like when you check into a hotel. You can always carry around your passport if you like, but it is (relatively) bulky and can be quite difficult to replace.

So the solution is to get an Italian identity card or "carta di identità", in Indonesia it’s kind of like KTP (Kartu Tanda Penduduk), which looks like this :

Do you know that Chuck Norris is actually an Italiano ?

You can apply for this at the local "comune" at the resident registration office "ufficio anagrafe" after you have your Permit of Stay (Permesso di Soggiorno). So, you must obtain your PdiS first before apply for Carta d’Identita.

For Italian citizens it can be used to travel within the European community. 

For NON-Europeans it is a valid form of identification within Italy (also for boarding national flights) only. It is not valid for travel or identification outside of Italy.

Special Note:  It is against the law to laminate the carta d'identità.  If you would like to protect it, you can buy a plastic cover at any local tobacco shop.

Electronic identity card, CIE

Beside a printed paper of Carta d’Identita, there’s also Carta d'Identità Elettronica (Electronic identity card, CIE). It is a personal identification document replacing the paper-based ID card in Italy. The first Italian electronic ID cards were issued in 2001.

It looks like this : 

According to provisions of the Italian constitution only the Italian municipalities can supply identity cards to citizens. Therefore the EIC issuing system is distributed locally. The Ministry of Internal Affairs supplies the required network infrastructure, software updates and security architecture. As a consequence the required issuing system is more complex than centralized ones used by other countries or for other electronic cards. However, the system allows smaller municipalities to collaborate with nearby larger ones in order to reduce printing costs.

The Italian EIC was intended for both online and offline identification. Therefore, apart from the printed information, data for identification are stored on a microchip as well as a laser band. Specifically, the microchip contains a digital certificate for online authentication and (optionally) a certificate for digital signatures. The Italian EIC is explicitly designed to give access to e-government services and will become the standard for access to online services offered to Italian citizens by public authorities. The technical specifications for the Italian identity card have been developed by the Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs in collaboration with the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

After more than 10 years of trials, the use of the electronic card is still limited to relatively few municipalities and the "online features" are not yet implemented.