Italy

Summary

Italy has allowed the bow since its 1992 hunting act, which names it next to the shotgun, the rifle and the falcon. Everything else about bowhunting is regional: whether it is allowed at all, for which game, with what bow, and after which course. Twenty regions and autonomous provinces, twenty answers.

For a visiting hunter the practical route is a private estate, an azienda faunistico-venatoria, in a region that allows the bow, on your home hunting licence.

What the national law says

• Article 13 (2) of Law 157/1992: The use of the two- or three-barrelled combination gun is also permitted, as well as the use of the bow and the falcon. The bow and the falcon are permitted means. Article 13 (5): All weapons and means not explicitly admitted are prohibited; anything not named, the crossbow included, is prohibited.
• Article 22: hunting requires the licenza di porto di fucile per uso di caccia, issued under public-security law after a regional exam in five subjects. The licence is a firearms licence; a bow-only hunter needs it all the same, as the falconers do.
• No national minimum draw weight, broadhead size or bow course. The regions set those.

Where the regions stand

• Allow the bow, by regional law and press reports of August 2023: Piemonte (selective ungulate hunting, criteria of July 2025 and a dedicated course), Lombardia, Veneto, Liguria (since July 2023, selection of roe deer, red deer, fallow deer and chamois), Toscana, Marche, Lazio, Abruzzo, Molise, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria.
• Do not allow it: Valle d’Aosta, Trentino-Alto Adige, Emilia-Romagna, Umbria, Campania, Sicilia, Sardegna. Friuli Venezia Giulia withdrew a proposal in 2019.
• We read the regional texts for Toscana, Liguria, Lazio, Marche and Piemonte. The rest of the list rests on the 2023 press survey and needs the regional law before you rely on it.

Equipment, where the region spells it out

• Toscana (regulation 36/R of 2022): selection hunting with a bow of at least 40 lb AMO for roe deer and 50 lb for the other species, 28-inch draw, broadheads of at least 25 mm with a single or multiple blade (art. 75 (6)). Driven wild boar hunts, at least 50 lb (art. 73 (6) c)). Admission to the selection exam requires a passed shooting test (art. 86 (1)); for the bow it is carried out and certified by a qualified shooting instructor: 4 arrows of 5 in a 20 cm target from at least 30 m with a compound and at least 20 m with a traditional bow (art. 86 (5)).
• Liguria (l.r. 29/1994, art. 35): selection hunting is with rifled weapons or with the bow, in the same places, ways and days as the rifle. No draw-weight figure in the law.
• Lazio (l.r. 17/1995, art. 21): the use of the bow and of falcons is also permitted, nothing more in the law.
• Marche (l.r. 7/1995): bow and falcon are exempt from the choice of a single hunting form; the same exam applies.
• Piemonte: bow only for selective ungulate hunting, after a course reserved to hunters with a valid licence who already hold the qualification for selective ungulate hunting (criteria, pt. 2). The course ends in a 20-question test, 16 right to pass, and a shooting test of 4 arrows of 5 in a 15 cm target, from 15 m with a traditional bow and 25 m with a compound (pt. 7). Hunters from outside the region who take ungulates with the bow must hold a specific qualification from an equivalent course built on the ISPRA criteria; the provinces and the Metropolitan City of Turin judge the equivalence (pt. 8). The text does not say whether hunters from outside Italy are included.

Foreign hunters

The national law has no rule for a hunter resident abroad. Law 157/1992 asks everyone who hunts for the licence to carry a shotgun for hunting and a liability policy (art. 12 (8)), and for a tesserino issued by the region of residence (art. 12 (12)); it does not say who issues one to a person with no residence in Italy. What a visitor must show is written by the regions, and the ones we read do not ask for the same thing.

• Veneto, in the region’s note of February 2025, which is not a law: a copy of the hunting authorisation of the state of residence, or a sworn statement of holding one; an identity document; an Italian-language liability policy valid in Italy; the regional tax; and a written invitation in Italian from an azienda faunistico-venatoria or agro-turistico-venatoria in the region. The region issues the temporary tesserino on those papers. Nothing about the bow is asked.
• Lazio (l.r. 17/1995, art. 20 (9)): a statement from the Italian consular authority that the applicant holds a firearm licence for hunting issued by the country of origin and is authorised to import the hunting weapons temporarily, with policies valid in Italy and proof of the taxes. The text does not say what a hunter who comes with a bow presents.
• Emilia-Romagna (l.r. 8/1994, art. 49 (8)): the tesserino is handed over on the papers needed to hunt in the country the hunter comes from; the region’s page asks for a copy of the foreign hunting title and, for citizens of the Union, of the European Firearms Pass. We did not check whether the bow is allowed there.
• The laws of Toscana, Liguria and Marche say nothing about foreign hunters. The Piedmont regional law admits hunters resident abroad without listing their papers (l.r. 5/2018, art. 12); we read it in an unofficial copy.

No text we read gives a visitor a route without a hunting document from home. The European Bowhunting Federation notes that non-residents bowhunt in the estates. Whether the estate’s region allows the bow, and for which game, is the first question to ask.

Before you go

This page describes the national law and the regional texts we read, as they stood on the date below. Italy’s rules differ by region and change often; the list of regions above is partly from press reports. No text we read says how a visitor from a country where the bow is banned is treated, nor what a bowhunter presents in Lazio, where the text asks for a firearm licence from the country of origin. Confirm with the estate and the region’s hunting office which text allows the bow there, for which species and with what equipment, and ask for the article. The final check is yours.