Last verified: August 16, 2026. I re-verify this page monthly. Advisory levels change without notice, and the crime releases from ISTAT and the Interior Ministry land on their own schedule.
Italy recorded 327 homicides in 2024, a rate of 0.55 per 100,000 people (ISTAT figures via Mondo Expat). That’s lower than England and Wales, and roughly a tenth of the United States.
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Italy also tops Europe’s pickpocketing index, by a distance.
Both facts are true, and together they’re the entire answer. Is Italy safe? Yes, on everything that would seriously hurt you, and no on the one thing that will merely ruin an afternoon. Most safety pages pick one of those halves and run with it.
This one gives you the numbers behind both, including why the “most dangerous Italian city” rankings you’ll find elsewhere are close to meaningless. I re-check the advisories and crime releases monthly, because both move.
Key Takeaways
- Is Italy safe? Yes, by every violent-crime measure. Its homicide rate was 0.55 per 100,000 in 2024 (ISTAT), below England and Wales at 0.86 and far below the US.
- The US State Department rates Italy Level 2, Exercise Increased Caution, the same tier as France, Spain and Germany.
- The one real risk is theft. Italy leads Europe’s pickpocketing index at 478 mentions per million visitors, ahead of France on 251.
- City crime rankings mislead badly, because they divide crimes by residents while the victims include millions of tourists who never enter the denominator.
Table of Contents
Is Italy Safe for Tourists?
Yes. As of its May 2025 update, the US State Department rates Italy Level 2, Exercise Increased Caution, the same tier it applies to France, Spain and Germany (travel.state.gov). The UK Foreign Office likewise describes most visits as trouble-free, advising alertness in crowded places rather than avoidance (GOV.UK).
Level 2 confuses people, so it’s worth being clear. It is not a warning to rethink your trip. It’s the normal rating for most of Western Europe. The terrorism wording attached to it reflects a Europe-wide security stance, not any specific Italian threat, and Italy has not seen a major attack in recent years.
The violent-crime numbers are where the answer gets concrete.
Note where Britain lands on that chart. England and Wales recorded 8.6 homicides per million in the year ending March 2025, the lowest rate since 1977, which converts to 0.86 per 100,000 (Office for National Statistics). Italy is lower still. British visitors worrying about Italian safety are, statistically, moving to a safer country for the week.
What Is the Real Risk in Italy?
Theft, and it isn’t close. Thefts made up 44% of all reported crime in Italy in 2024, up three percentage points on 2023 (The Local). Almost none of it is violent. It is opportunistic, it happens in crowds, and it is the one risk worth genuinely adjusting your habits for.
On pickpocketing specifically, Italy leads Europe and not by a small margin.
Rome carries most of it. The Rome area logged 33,431 pickpocketing reports in 2024, up 4.8% on 2023 (Il Sole 24 Ore crime index, from Interior Ministry data). Those are big numbers against a city that hosts tens of millions of visitors, but they’re also a clear signal about where and how it happens. If you’re choosing a base, my Rome neighbourhood guide covers which streets around Termini to pick.
It happened to me on the 64 bus, the Termini to Vatican route that every guidebook flags and everyone rides anyway. A woman pressed in at a stop, and I felt a hand at the outside pocket of my jacket. Nothing was taken, because nothing was in it. That was luck rather than skill, and afterwards I changed one habit: cross-body bag, zipped, worn in front on transit, with nothing at all in outer pockets. It has been eight years and there hasn’t been a second incident.
Which Italian Cities Have the Most Crime?
On the official numbers, Milan leads with roughly 4,000 thefts per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Rome near 3,500 and Rimini around 3,200 (Statista). Those rankings get republished constantly. They also measure something quite different from your personal risk.
Here’s the problem with that ranking. A theft rate is crimes divided by population, and the population used is the number of *residents*. But Milan, Rome, Florence and Rimini all host daytime populations swollen by tourists, commuters and students. Those people get robbed and appear in the numerator. None of them appear in the denominator. The Local notes exactly this effect when reporting the figures: city rates rise partly because their populations swell during the day.
So a city can look twice as criminal as its neighbour purely by being popular. Rimini is a beach resort of 150,000 people that hosts millions of summer visitors; of course its per-resident theft rate looks alarming. The number is real. What it measures is not “your chance of being robbed here.”
What the data does support is narrower and more useful: theft concentrates around transport hubs, crowded transit and major sights. Not whole cities, and not the historic centres where you’ll spend most of your time, which are heavily policed.
Is Southern Italy Safe?
Yes. Ask whether Italy is safe below Rome and the data points the opposite way to the stereotype: the highest theft rates in Italy are in the north. Milan tops the national table at roughly 4,000 per 100,000 residents, and Rimini, another northern city, sits third (Statista). Naples does not lead the ranking that most people assume it leads.
This is the part worth sitting with. The travel-forum picture of a dangerous south and a safe north is not what the theft figures show. Northern cities are richer, busier and more visited, and that combination attracts far more opportunistic theft than anywhere below Rome.
Organised crime is a separate question, and the honest answer is that it barely intersects with tourism. It’s real, it’s regional, and it operates in construction, waste and public contracts rather than against visitors on holiday. You will not encounter it. What you will encounter in Naples is heavy traffic, chaotic scooters and the same pickpocketing risk as Rome. The province ranks 13th nationally for reported crime, behind Milan, Florence and Rome.
Practical version: treat Naples, Palermo and Bari the way you’d treat any large city, keep the bag rule below, and stop worrying about the map. The southern route through Naples and Puglia also happens to be the cheapest way to see Italy.
Is Crime in Italy Getting Worse?
Mixed, and anyone asking whether Italy is safe deserves the honest version rather than a single tidy direction. Overall crime rose 1.7% in 2024, but it still sits about 15% below where it was in 2014. The Interior Ministry’s mid-year report then showed total crime down 9% across the first seven months of 2025 (The Local; Viminale).
Set those against the theft trend and you get the real picture. Down over a decade. Roughly flat to noisy year on year. But pickpocketing in Rome is up 68% against 2019, which is the component that actually touches visitors. Our Rome guide maps where pickpockets actually operate in Rome.
That combination is why generic reassurance ages badly here. Violent crime in Italy is low and has been for years. Opportunistic theft in the busiest tourist cities has grown sharply since before the pandemic, tracking the return of mass tourism rather than any breakdown in safety.
Is Italy Safe for Solo Female Travellers?
Broadly yes, with the same theft caveat that applies to everyone. There’s one thing the crime numbers miss, though. Women travelling in Italy report street harassment far more often than they report any actual crime.
That difference matters. Catcalling and unwanted attention are common and genuinely annoying. They are not the same as danger, and they don’t show up in assault figures. Blurring the two is how safety advice for women turns either dismissive or scary.
The practical steps are the ordinary city ones. Take a licensed taxi or a city app late at night instead of walking a route you don’t know. Stay aware around station districts after dark, which is where most cities keep their problems. A firm “no, grazie” and a steady walking pace ends most unwanted attention.
Solo travel here is common and well served. Italy’s tourist areas are busy enough that you’re rarely far from a lit street or an open bar. The honest summary: the risk is no different from any big European country.
What Actually Ruins Italian Trips
Heat and disruption, far more often than crime. People ask whether Italy is safe and picture theft, but the likelier trip-wrecker is the weather. In early August 2026, 25 of Italy’s 27 monitored cities sat under the top heat alert, with highs near 40°C (Euronews). Rail strikes are frequent too, common enough that a monthly calendar exists to track them.
Weigh that properly against the crime risk. Your realistic worst case from theft is a stolen phone and a bureaucratic afternoon. Your realistic worst case from an August heatwave is heatstroke, or a week of afternoons spent hiding indoors. One of those is a genuine health risk, and it isn’t the one the safety pages fixate on.
Timing handles most of it. Our guide to the best time to visit Italy makes the case for the shoulder months, and the comparison of trains, buses and cars covers the strike calendar and the station hustles worth knowing about.
How to Stay Safe in Italy
Theft accounts for 44% of all reported crime in Italy (The Local), so nearly all of the useful advice is about bags and attention. If you want one practical answer to “is Italy safe”, it’s this list. These are the rules that do the work.
- Wear a cross-body bag, zipped, in front of you on transit. This single habit removes most of your exposure.
- Nothing in back pockets or outer jacket pockets. Phones and wallets there are the standard target.
- Phone away at stations and on crowded buses. Rome’s 64 and 40 routes and the areas around Termini and Napoli Centrale are the well-documented hotspots.
- Ignore unsolicited help at ticket machines. It ends in a demand for a tip, and it’s the most common station hustle in Italy.
- Pay by card, use bank ATMs, and always choose euros when a terminal offers to charge you in your home currency.
- Save 112, the EU-wide emergency number, which works everywhere in Italy.
If something is taken, you need a *denuncia*. That’s the formal police report, filed at a *questura* or *carabinieri* station, and it’s free. No insurance claim works without it. Lost your passport? Call your embassy the same day, and see our guide to Italy’s entry and border rules for the documents you’ll need to travel on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Italy safe for tourists?
Yes, Italy is safe for tourists. The US State Department puts it at Level 2, the same tier as France and Germany, and its homicide rate was 0.55 per 100,000 in 2024 (ISTAT). The real risk is theft, not violence, and it clusters on crowded buses and around stations.
How bad is pickpocketing in Italy?
It leads Europe. Italy scores 478 mentions per million visitors on Quotezone’s pickpocketing index, against France’s 251 and Spain’s 111. The Rome area alone logged 33,431 pickpocketing reports in 2024 (Il Sole 24 Ore). Most of it happens around stations and on busy bus routes.
Which Italian city has the most crime?
Milan tops the official theft rankings at roughly 4,000 per 100,000 residents, ahead of Rome and Rimini. Treat that with care. The rate divides crimes by residents alone. Tourists and commuters get robbed too, but they never count as population, so every tourist-heavy city looks worse than it is.
Is Italy safer than the United States?
On violent crime, substantially. Italy’s homicide rate of 0.55 per 100,000 is roughly a tenth of the US figure of about 5.7. On petty theft the comparison reverses, with Italy leading Europe on pickpocketing.
Is Italy safe for solo female travellers?
Generally yes. Italy is safe for solo women travellers who take standard city precautions. Street harassment is reported far more often than crime is, which is unpleasant but a different category of problem. Licensed taxis at night and awareness around station districts handle most situations.
The Short Version
Is Italy safe? Yes, with one asterisk worth taking seriously. Italy is safe on everything that would seriously harm you, and careless on the one thing that costs you a phone.
- Violent crime is genuinely low. A homicide rate of 0.55 per 100,000 puts Italy below England and Wales.
- Both the US and UK governments treat it as a standard-caution destination, no different from France or Spain.
- Theft is the real risk, and Italy leads Europe on pickpocketing at 478 mentions per million visitors.
- Ignore “most dangerous city” rankings. They divide crimes by residents while counting tourists as victims.
- One zipped cross-body bag, worn in front on transit, removes most of your exposure.
- Heat and strikes are likelier to disrupt your trip than any crime.
For how safety fits the wider planning order, start with our complete Italy travel guide, and use the itinerary comparison to decide how many cities to take on.
