New passport service to launch in Rome, Milan and Naples in September.

Italy is now offering passport services at select post offices in Rome, after launching the initiative at post offices in 300 small towns earlier this year.

The service, which launched last month in Bologna, Cagliari and Verona, will initially be offered at 12 post offices in the capital from Monday 16 September.

Italian citizens can apply for passports directly in the post office without having to go to the questura police station and can choose to collect their passport from the questura or request home delivery.

There is a fee of €14.20 and an average turnaround time of 15 days, La Repubblica reports.

Passport applications can also be submitted for children and the service is already active in 32 post offices in Bologna, 32 in Verona and 17 in Cagliari.

The initiative, a collaboration between Poste Italiane and Italy's interior ministry, was launched in March in towns with populations of up to 15,000 people.

The service will be extended to Milan and Naples from mid-September, Poste Italiane general manager Giuseppe Lasco confirmed in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper last month.

Lasco said the service would eventually be offered in 100 post offices in Milan, 72 in Naples and 200 in Rome, telling Il Sole 24 Ore: "We are the only country in the world where the state uses a private company to issue passports. Many are looking to our example, even Japan."

In July the Italian passport was ranked the world's joint second-most powerful after Singapore, according to the 2024 Henley Passport Index which is based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Italy's passport, along with those of France, Germany, Japan and Spain, offers its holders visa-free travel to 192 destinations.

Which post offices in Rome are offering the passport service from 16 September?

In addition to the central post office in Piazza di San Silvestro, the following post offices offer the service: Via Taranto 19; Via di Monte Cervialto 125; Via Federico De Roberto 35; Via Salaria 1438; Via di Saponara; Viale Beethoven 36; Via Terzilio Cardinali 11; Via Natale Balbiani 12; Via Anteo 26; Via Accursio 1; Via di Santa Seconda 15/a.