In 2024, visitors who came to Italy specifically to trace their family ancestry spent an average of 145 euros per day — 17 euros more than the typical international tourist, according to a study by the Centro Studi Turistici (CST) conducted in collaboration with Assoturismo Confesercenti for Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI). Together, they generated nearly 5 billion euros in economic activity, with 34.4 million overnight stays across the country.
Italian roots tourism is the practice of traveling to Italy with the primary motivation of researching your family’s geographic origins — visiting the towns your ancestors left behind, accessing local archives and parish records, and establishing direct contact with the communities where your family’s story began. It is not cultural tourism. It is personal archaeology.
What exactly is Italian roots tourism — and how is it different from regular cultural travel?
Italian roots tourism describes travel in which the destination is chosen not for its general appeal, but for a pre-existing family connection. The visitor’s goal is genealogical and identity-driven: to find the specific village, the specific archive, and in many cases the specific house from which a grandfather or great-grandmother departed — sometimes more than a century ago.
Three things consistently distinguish roots tourists from other international visitors.
First, the destination is predetermined by ancestry — this is why the most-visited areas are not Florence or Rome, but small towns in Sicily, Calabria, Campania, Basilicata, and the Veneto.
Second, roots tourists stay longer and spend more: an average of 5.32 nights and 145 euros per day (CST/Assoturismo Confesercenti, 2024).
Third, they frequently activate a chain of practical decisions that extends well beyond the trip — citizenship applications, property purchases, and in a growing number of cases, relocation.
The Italian government’s PNRR documentation defines roots tourism as travel motivated by visiting one’s “paese di origine” (ancestral hometown). It is distinct from heritage tourism, which is general cultural interest, and from generic ancestry travel. Italian roots tourism is anchored to a physical place — the village, the parish, the archive — and it begins with a name and a surname.
How many people visit Italy for roots tourism every year — and where do they come from?
According to data compiled by the Centro Studi Turistici (CST) in collaboration with Assoturismo Confesercenti for the MAECI, arrivals in Italy with roots tourism as their primary motivation reached 6.6 million in 2024 — 6.2% above projections. Forecasts for 2026 point to 7.3 million arrivals, 37.9 million overnight stays, and aggregate spending of more than 5.5 billion euros.
The potential pool is vast. Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates between 60 and 80 million people worldwide can claim Italian ancestry. According to ISTAT data (published July 2024), there were 6,382,000 Italian citizens officially registered with the Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all’Estero (AIRE) as of 31 December 2024, across more than 190 countries.
| Country | AIRE Registered (ISTAT 2024) | Roots Tourism Rank | Primary Italian Destination Regions |
|---|---|---|---|
| USA | ~250,000 AIRE + 17-20M descendants | 1st | Sicily, Campania, Calabria, Abruzzo, Basilicata |
| Argentina | 987.000 | 2nd | Basilicata, Calabria, Puglia, Veneto, Sicily |
| Brazil | 671.000 | 3rd | Veneto, Friuli-VG, Calabria, Campania |
| Germany | 847.000 | 4th | Sicily, Calabria, Campania, Veneto |
| Switzerland | 654.000 | 5th | Sicily, Calabria, Puglia, Abruzzo |
| France | 483.000 | 6th | Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany, Sardinia |
| Australia | ~164.000 | 7th | Sicily, Calabria, Abruzzo, Molise |
Note: AIRE figures reflect registered passport holders, not total descendants. The gap between registered citizens and total Italian-ancestry population is especially wide for the USA and Argentina. Roots tourism ranking: CST/Assoturismo Confesercenti 2024; AIRE data: ISTAT, July 2024.
A key feature that makes the Italian diaspora unique is its generational depth. Most Italian Americans are third- or fourth-generation descendants of emigrants who left between 1880 and 1930. In Argentina and Brazil, first waves arrived as early as the 1870s-1890s — some families are now in their fifth or sixth generation. This generational distance does not dampen the pull of roots tourism; in many cases, it intensifies it, because the documentary link to Italy has become more fragile and therefore more precious.
Which regions of Italy attract the most roots tourists — and why?
The geography of Italian roots tourism mirrors the geography of Italian emigration. Three major waves determined where the diaspora settled — and therefore where descendants return today.
Southern Italy fed emigration to the United States, Argentina, and Australia between 1880 and 1930. Sicily, Calabria, Campania, Abruzzo, Molise, Basilicata, and Puglia account for the large majority of Italian-American and Italian-Argentine ancestry. Today these regions attract the most roots tourists from those same countries. Parish archives and civil registry records — systematically kept since the Council of Trent (1545-1563) — provide documentary evidence going back to the 16th century. The Portale Antenati, a free digital platform managed by Italy’s Ministry of Culture, has digitized millions of these records and made them searchable online.
Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia fed substantial migration to Brazil — particularly Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Parana — and parts of Argentina in the second half of the 19th century. In some rural areas of Rio Grande do Sul, a dialect close to 19th-century Venetian is still spoken. Piedmont and Liguria supplied emigrants primarily to France, Belgium, Switzerland, Chile, and Uruguay.
| Region | Main Diaspora | Migration Period | Key Archives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sicily | USA, Argentina, Australia | 1880-1930 | State Archives; parishes from 1563 |
| Calabria | USA, Argentina, Canada | 1880-1930 | State Archives RC,CS,CZ,VV,KR |
| Campania | USA (NY, Boston, Philadelphia) | 1880-1920 | Naples State Archive; Portale Antenati |
| Basilicata | USA, Argentina, Brazil | 1880-1930 | State Archives L'Aquila, Campobasso |
| Puglia | USA, Argentina, Germany | 1900-1970 | State Archives Bari, Lecce, Foggia |
| Veneto-Friuli | Brazil (RS,SC,PR), Argentina | 1870-1910 | State Archives VE,PD,TV,UD,TS + diocesan |
| Piedmont-Liguria | France, Belgium, Switzerland | 1880-1960 | State Archives TO, GE + diocesan |
According to the CST/Assoturismo Confesercenti 2024 study, the regions recording the highest roots tourist inflows are Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Campania, Sicily, Calabria, Abruzzo, and Puglia. A significant share reaches small inland towns far from the main tourist circuits, generating direct economic benefit for communities that receive little from mass tourism.
What does a roots tourist actually do during a trip to Italy?
A roots trip has a consistent structure that sets it apart from any other kind of travel. It is not an itinerary built around attractions: it is a research journey with a funnel-shaped progression — starting from the home municipality and opening gradually toward encounters, documents, and in many cases, life-changing decisions.
The arrival phase almost always starts at the municipal civil registry office (ufficio anagrafe) or the local state archive. The goal is twofold: to obtain certified copies of documents useful for a potential citizenship application, and to hold in hand the actual birth certificate of a great-great-grandparent. This moment — often the most emotionally intense of the entire trip — is something no digital archive can replicate.
The following day typically leads to the parish archive. In many Southern Italian towns, the parish holds baptism registers going back to the 16th or 17th century — long before the Italian state existed. The parish priest is often one of the most valuable resources in the territory: they know the local families and can facilitate introductions to residents who share the traveler’s surname.
Many visitors dedicate at least half a day to the cemetery. Headstones are a primary genealogical source for recent generations, and the density of a surname across a cemetery communicates immediately how deeply that family was rooted in the territory. When possible, visiting the family home — the house from which an ancestor departed, if it still exists — is often the final act of the journey, the one that transforms an emotional experience into a concrete possibility.
How does Italian roots tourism compare to Ireland, Scotland, or Greece?
Ancestral tourism is not uniquely Italian. Ireland, Scotland, Poland, and Greece each have significant diasporas and active heritage programs. But Italy presents three structural advantages found in combination nowhere else.
Scale: Italy has between 60 and 80 million descendants worldwide (MAECI). Ireland estimates approximately 70 million people of Irish heritage globally; Scotland approximately 50 million. But the geographic diversity of the Italian diaspora is exceptional — spread across the USA (17-20 million Americans), Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Canada, and throughout Western Europe.
Archival depth: The Council of Trent (1545-1563) required all Catholic parishes to keep systematic records of baptisms, marriages, and burials. For the majority of Italian municipalities, reliable demographic data exists from the 16th century. The Portale Antenati has digitized millions of these records, freely searchable online.
Fiscal incentive: Italy offers a flat 7% substitute tax on all foreign-sourced income for new residents relocating to qualifying Southern Italian municipalities (Article 24-ter, TUIR). Law 11 March 2026, No. 34, raised the eligible municipality threshold to 30,000 inhabitants. No other European heritage tourism destination offers a comparable combination of ancestral pull and fiscal benefit.
Is the roots trip just the beginning — what happens next?
A roots visit to Italy rarely ends at the airport on the way home. For a growing share of travelers, it is the starting point of a much longer journey — one that may lead to a property purchase, a residency transfer, a citizenship application, or at minimum a pattern of annual returns that gradually becomes a second life.
The data shows a direct correlation between the roots visit and subsequent concrete decisions. Italian citizenship by descent (jure sanguinis) applications have grown in parallel with roots tourism. According to ISTAT, citizenship acquisitions abroad reached nearly 69,000 cases in Brazil and approximately 31,000 in Argentina in 2024 — two countries where the link between Italian ancestry, roots tourism, and citizenship applications is especially direct.
For those who have identified their home municipality, the practical next question is how to request documents, how to navigate the parish archive, what realistic timelines look like for a citizenship process. Impatria accompanies clients through every stage of this journey — from the first genealogical search to property purchase and residency transfer.
For those considering making Italy more than a visit, our Silver Move program is built for exactly this transition.
The 5 phases of a roots journey
| Phase | Description | Avg Duration | Key Tools | Output |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Preliminary research | Gather family docs; search FamilySearch & Portale Antenati; identify municipality | 1-6 months (remote) | FamilySearch, Portale Antenati, genealogy specialist | Municipality name, emigration period confirmed |
| 2. Contact the municipality | Request certified birth/marriage/death extracts; confirm archive availability | 2-8 weeks | Email to Comune civil registry; Italea network | Certified documents; archive access confirmed |
| 3. Visit & reconnaissance | Travel to hometown: archive, parish, cemetery, meeting residents with same surname | 5-10 days | Italea Card; local genealogy contacts | Documents, photos, contacts, property overview |
| 4. Evaluate options | Assess citizenship path, 7% tax regime (comuni <30k inhabitants), property purchase, visa | 1-12 months | Tax, legal and real estate advisors; Impatria | Personalised action plan |
| 5. Decision | Start citizenship application and/or relocation and/or property purchase | Variable | Notary, consulate, competent municipality | Deed, visa, or new residency |
Case study: Diego from Buenos Aires — from a surname to a deed
Diego runs a food business in Buenos Aires. Until 2022, he knew two things about his Italian family: the great-grandfather’s name was Vincenzo, and he had left “somewhere in Puglia” at the start of the 20th century.
Phase 1 — Research (2022-2023). The starting point: a handwritten baptism certificate his grandmother had kept, naming the hometown — Minervino Murge, province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. Diego searched the Portale Antenati and in three months reconstructed four generations back to 1872. With specialist genealogical support, he identified the exact archival references for a citizenship application.
Phase 2 — Contact with the municipality (January 2024). Diego wrote to the Civil Registry of the Comune di Minervino Murge. The municipality responded in six weeks with apostilled documents. Total cost: 120 euros.
Phase 3 — The visit (April 2024). Eight days in and around Minervino Murge. Day one: the Archivio di Stato di Bari. Day two: the local parish — the priest showed him the marriage register of his great-grandfather, signed with a thumbprint because Vincenzo could not write. Day three: the cemetery, where he found three Mancuso headstones including an aunt Vincenzo had never mentioned. Day four: a gathering with five local families sharing the same surname, two almost certainly fourth- or fifth-degree cousins.
Phase 4 — Evaluating the options (May-October 2024). Back in Buenos Aires, Diego initiated the jure sanguinis citizenship process through the Italian Consulate. Restored apartments in the historic centre of Minervino Murge: 60,000-90,000 euros. He explored the 7% flat tax regime under Article 24-ter TUIR, extended by Law 34/2026 to municipalities of up to 30,000 inhabitants.
Phase 5 — The decision (2025). Citizenship recognised in March 2025. Deed signed in August 2025. He currently spends four weeks a year in Puglia. “Vincenzo left with a suitcase. I came back with his documents. And with the keys to a house.”
Fonti
MAECI — Roots Tourism
CST/Assoturismo Confesercenti — Roots Tourism Data 2024: 9Colonne, TTG Italia, L’Agenzia di Viaggi Magazine (2024-2025)
ISTAT — “Italians Residing Abroad, Years 2023 and 2024”: July 2024
Fondazione Migrantes — Rapporto Italiani nel Mondo 2024: november 2024
Italea (official MAECI platform, 2025-2026)
Portale Antenati — Ministry of Culture
National Geographic — “This American Found 100 Living Relatives in a Small Italian Village”: November 2024
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Faq
Italian roots tourism is the practice of traveling to Italy with the primary motivation of researching your family's geographic origins — visiting the towns your ancestors left, accessing local archives and parish records, and making direct contact with the communities where your family's story began. It is distinct from cultural tourism because the destination is determined by ancestry, not by general travel appeal.
According to the CST/Assoturismo Confesercenti study for the MAECI, arrivals in Italy motivated primarily by roots tourism reached 6.6 million in 2024, generating 34.4 million overnight stays and approximately 5 billion euros in spending. Projections for 2026 indicate growth toward 7.3 million arrivals.
The primary source countries in order are: the United States (1st, with 17-20 million Americans of Italian descent), Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Australia.
Start with any family document naming the Italian hometown: birth certificates, old passports, letters, or photos. The Portale Antenati (antenati.cultura.gov.it), Italy's free national genealogy platform, gives access to millions of digitized parish and civil records.
The roots trip and an Italian citizenship by descent (jure sanguinis) application are distinct but often linked processes. The visit helps collect the certified documents required and establish contacts with the competent municipality. The citizenship process has realistic timelines of 18 months to several years.
Per CST/Assoturismo Confesercenti 2024: Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Campania, Sicily, Calabria, Abruzzo, and Puglia. The distribution mirrors historic emigration: Southern regions served the American and South American diaspora; Veneto-Friuli served the Brazilian diaspora.
