Vaping in Italy: is it legal, and can you bring a vape? (2026)

Yes. Italy regulates e-cigarettes as a product and we could confirm no general indoor ban on using them. Law 128 of 8 November 2013, article 4, bans the use of electronic cigarettes indoors at schools and training institutions and in the outdoor areas around them, and extends that to rehabilitation and juvenile detention facilities for minors and to vocational training centres. Breaches carry the administrative sanctions of article 7 of Law 584/1975; we found no amount stated.

A summary of Ministry of Health pages says the earlier ban on using e-cigarettes in public places was dropped when that law was converted, which fits the school-only wording above. It is not confirmed in the law's full text, so read it as likely, not certain. A venue, a train company or an airport operator can still prohibit vaping on its own premises.

Legislative Decree 6 of 12 January 2016, which brought the EU tobacco directive into Italian law, sets the limits in article 21. Nicotine liquid can be placed on the market only in refill containers of at most 10 ml, in disposable e-cigarettes with tanks of at most 2 ml, or in disposable cartridges of at most 2 ml, and it cannot contain more than 20 mg/ml of nicotine. Disposable vapes are therefore not banned by this text, and we found no later Italian ban.

Sale of nicotine e-cigarettes to under-18s is banned by a Ministry of Health ordinance of 2 April 2013, whose wording we do not quote.

Two other rules matter for a visitor who thinks of shipping a vape to a hotel. Article 21(11) prohibits transnational sales of e-cigarettes and refill containers to consumers who buy in Italy. Article 21(12) lets the customs and monopoly agency have websites blocked that offer nicotine liquids without the authorisation required by the Economy and Finance decree of 29 December 2014.

We found no Italian customs figure for vape devices, a limit in millilitres, a nicotine-strength limit for travellers or a declaration rule. The general EU allowance for non-tobacco goods bought outside the EU is EUR 300, or EUR 430 by air or sea, according to Your Europe; whether Italy applies it to liquids is unconfirmed.

No source says what happens to a traveller who carries more than a few bottles of liquid. Do not treat the lack of a published limit as permission.

Cigarette, cigar and tobacco allowances are on the Italy rules page. If you are flying, keep the device in cabin baggage and read bringing a vape on a plane.

With no national indoor rule beyond schools, the answer is set by the place. Press reports say Milan's outdoor smoking ban of 1 January 2025 does not cover e-cigarettes; this is not confirmed in the city's regulation, so check the sign. In practice many restaurants, hotels, trains and airport terminals post their own no-vaping notices, and those are enforced as house rules.

Heated tobacco is legal and widely sold in Italy. The Ministry of Health issued a directorial decree on the packaging of Philip Morris's Terea sticks, but its contents are not confirmed. Whether heated tobacco counts as smoking indoors is not settled, and a plan by the health minister to bring it under the smoke-free rules was reported but we found no enacted law. We found no customs allowance for sticks.

We did not find an Italian source on the legal status of nicotine pouches, so we do not say whether they can be sold or carried.

We found no rule for passengers who only change planes airside. Our airport pages record vaping as not allowed at Bologna and Venice, and as unknown at Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa and Naples. Smoking areas at Italian airports are listed on the airport pages; we found no source saying that they are open to vapers.