Italian .it domain: who can register one and what the rules are

A .it domain is the country code extension of Italy. You can register one if your citizenship, your place of residence or your organisation's registered office is in a country of the European Economic Area, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City or the United Kingdom. You do not need any ties with Italy. You register a .it domain through an accredited registrar, and you can then connect it to your website and email at LJPc hosting.

This article covers who can register a .it domain, which details you provide, which rules a .it name has to follow, how registration, transfers and renewal work, and how to connect your .it domain to your hosting at LJPc.

What is a .it domain?

.it is the domain extension of Italy. The registry for all .it names is Registro .it, part of the Institute of Informatics and Telematics of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) in Pisa. The CNR has managed .it since December 1987.

Registro .it does not register domains for end users itself: accredited registrars do that. The rules are set out in the regulation for the assignment and management of .it domain names and in the technical guidelines that come with it. You can find both on the documents page of Registro .it.

Who can register a .it domain?

You can register a .it domain if you are an adult and your citizenship, your place of residence or your organisation's registered office is in one of these countries:

• a country of the European Economic Area: the member states of the European Union plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway;
• Switzerland;
• San Marino;
• Vatican City;
• the United Kingdom.

For a person, either your citizenship or your country of residence has to be on the list. An organisation needs its registered office in one of the listed countries. Ties with Italy, such as customers or a branch there, are not required, and there is no limit on the number of .it domains you can hold.

Register the domain in your own name or in the name of your organisation. Registro .it does not allow someone else to hold the domain on your behalf, except within a trust.

Which details you provide

When you register, your registrar passes these details on to Registro .it:

Your registrar will tell you exactly which number it needs. After registration, Registro .it emails the registrant a summary of the registered details. Check it straight away.

Keep your details accurate

Registro .it can ask you at any time, also at the request of a third party, to prove with documents that you meet the requirements. Your domain is locked while it checks. If you cannot prove it or do not send the documents, Registro .it revokes the domain: it stays revoked for 30 days and is then deleted. A report of inaccurate details also locks the domain. If your registrar does not deal with such a report within 30 days, Registro .it removes the delegation to your name servers and your website and email stop working. So pass any change of address or organisation details to your registrar right away.

Which rules does a .it name follow?

According to the regulation and technical guidelines of Registro .it:

• Length. A name directly under .it has 3 to 63 characters, not counting the extension. A two-letter name such as ab.it is not possible.
• Characters. You can use the letters a to z, the digits 0 to 9 and the hyphen. Accented letters and Greek and Cyrillic letters are allowed as well, so you can register names in all 24 official languages of the European Union. One name cannot mix scripts, such as Latin and Cyrillic letters.
• Hyphens. A name cannot start or end with a hyphen and cannot start with xn--.
• Not assignable. The names of Italian regions, provinces and municipalities, such as toscana.it and pisa.it, and names of internet services, such as www.it, mail.it and internet.it, are not available to anyone.
• Reserved. Names that refer to Italy as a country, such as italia.it and italy.it, are only for the Italian government. Names that match the official name of a region, province or municipality as a public authority, such as comune-pisa.it, are only for that authority.
• Place names. You can register your own name under an Italian province or municipality, such as yourname.pisa.it or yourname.viareggio.lucca.it.
• Second-level extensions. Names such as gov.it and edu.it are reserved for bodies appointed by the Italian state. For almost everyone, a name directly under .it is the right choice.

If you choose a name with an accent, such as città, also register the spelling without the accent. That way, visitors without an Italian keyboard can type your address with ease.

When is a .it domain the right choice?

According to Google's guidelines for multi-regional websites, a country code extension is a strong signal that a site is meant for that country. .it is not on the list of country code extensions that Google treats as generic, so Google sees a .it site as a site for Italy. Here is how to choose:

How to redirect a second domain to your main site is explained in redirect a domain to another website.

How to register a .it domain

1. Use the Registro .it Whois to check whether the name is still available. Registro .it assigns a name to whoever applies for it first.
2. Choose a registrar from the list of accredited registrars of Registro .it.
3. Register the name in your own name or that of your organisation, with your identification number, your own address and an email address that already works. If you register as a person, choose whether your details are shown in WHOIS.
4. Keep the AuthInfo code your registrar sends you after registration. You need that code to transfer the domain or to change its holder.
5. Enter the name servers your domain should point to. If you host with LJPc, those are our name servers: see below.

Registro .it only activates a new .it domain once its name servers actually serve the domain. Until that check succeeds, the domain is registered in your name but not yet reachable. Registro .it repeats the check every 30 minutes for the first 30 days, and once a day after that.

Connect your .it domain to your website and email at LJPc

Your .it domain stays with your registrar and we take care of your website and email. Here is how to connect it:

1. Open the order wizard in the customer portal, choose I already have one at another registrar and enter your domain, for example yourdomain.it. No account yet? Create one first.
2. Choose Keep domain elsewhere, connect hosting here.
3. Choose your hosting or redirect package and complete the order. LJPc then creates a DNS zone for your domain.
4. Then log in at your registrar and set the name servers of your .it domain to ns1.ljpc.network, ns2.ljpc.network and ns3.ljpc.network. How to do that is explained in change your name servers.

Registro .it checks the new name servers before the change goes through. So only switch them once your order with us is complete and the DNS zone is ready. During the check your domain keeps pointing to the old name servers, so your website and email keep working. If the check does not succeed within 5 days, the change is dropped and the old name servers stay in place.

Prefer to keep DNS at your registrar? Then add individual records there that point to your hosting with us, as described in point a domain at another provider to LJPc hosting. If DNSSEC is enabled for your .it domain, have the DS record removed before you change the name servers; what DNSSEC does is explained in what is DNSSEC. After the change, the new information still has to spread across the internet, as explained in what is DNS propagation. Other things to keep in mind, such as email that runs elsewhere, are covered in register a domain and link it to your hosting.

Transfer a .it domain to another registrar

You can move your .it domain to another registrar using the domain's AuthInfo code.

1. Not sure which registrar holds your domain? Who manages your domain explains how to find your registrar, your DNS provider and your hosting.
2. Look up the AuthInfo code your registrar sent you at registration. Lost it? Ask your registrar for it. If your registrar cannot be reached or will not give you the code, you can contact Registro .it.
3. Give the code to your new registrar, which requests the transfer.
4. The transfer stays open for 1 day at most. Your old registrar can only refuse it if a competent authority has served it a notice about the domain. If nothing happens, Registro .it approves the transfer automatically after that day.
5. Your new registrar gives you a new AuthInfo code. After the transfer, check that your name servers still point to the right place. If you host with LJPc, those are ns1, ns2 and ns3.ljpc.network.

After a transfer, the registration year starts again from the transfer date. If your domain is locked, for example during a check by Registro .it, you can only transfer it once the lock is lifted. What a transfer code is in general is explained in get an EPP code and transfer your domain. For extensions we register, such as .nl and .eu, you transfer your domain to us as described in transfer your domain to LJPc.

Change the holder of a .it domain

To hand the domain over to another person or organisation, the current holder gives the AuthInfo code to the new holder. The new holder's registrar carries out the change of holder and then issues a new AuthInfo code. The new holder must meet the .it requirements too. A transfer to another registrar and a change of holder can be done in one go.

If you only want to update your own details, such as your address or phone number, your registrar takes care of that. If your registrar does not respond, you can request the change directly from Registro .it with a form. Who the holder is only changes through a change of holder. What a change of holder involves is explained in change the owner of a domain.

What does the WHOIS of a .it domain show?

The Registro .it Whois shows whether a .it name is available and, if it is registered, its status, registration and expiry dates, name servers and registrar. Beyond that, it depends on the holder:

• Organisation or company. The organisation's name, address and contact details are public.
• Person. Name, address, email address and phone number stay hidden, unless you give consent through your registrar to show them.

Registro .it only discloses hidden details in response to a substantiated request from someone with a legitimate interest, for example in a case of abuse or an infringement of rights. What WHOIS data is and how to update it for your own domains is explained in manage the WHOIS data of your domain.

Renewal, expiry and cancellation

Registro .it always registers a .it domain for one year and then renews it automatically for another year, unless your registrar deletes it. You pay for the renewal at your registrar. This is what happens after the expiry date:

Registro .it publishes these lists on its Drop Time page. How this compares with the 40-day quarantine of .nl is explained in expired domain and quarantine. How to try to secure a name that becomes available is explained in domain backorder.

No longer need the domain? Cancel it through your registrar. To avoid another year, the cancellation must reach Registro .it no later than 15 days after the annual expiry date. Your registrar may set its own, earlier deadline, so cancel in good time.

Someone else has your name as a .it domain

If someone has registered your brand, business name or personal name as a .it domain, you start with a challenge, the opposizione, at Registro .it. You submit it in writing, in Italian, using the Registro .it templates. The domain is then frozen: it cannot move to another holder while the challenge is open. Registro .it does not decide on the dispute itself. You renew the challenge every 180 working days, unless court proceedings, arbitration or a reassignment procedure are under way.

After that, you choose one of these routes:

• Reassignment. A dispute resolution provider accredited by Registro .it assesses whether the name is identical or confusingly similar to your brand, business name or personal name, whether the holder has no rights to the name, and whether it was registered and is used in bad faith. If the complainant wins and the holder does not go to court within 15 working days, the complainant can register the domain in their own name within 30 days.
• Arbitration. A panel of arbitrators decides, if both parties agree to it.
• Court. You take the dispute to an Italian court.

More information is on the disputes page of Registro .it.

Want to connect your .it domain to your hosting at LJPc and running into something? Create a support ticket and we will look into it with you.