Italy Child Custody: A Parent's Guide

In short: Italian law makes shared custody, affidamento condiviso, the legal default. Under Article 337-ter of the Codice Civile (introduced by Law 54/2006), a judge must first evaluate whether a child can be entrusted to both parents before considering anything else, and sole custody (affidamento esclusivo, Article 337-quater) is granted only as a reasoned exception when shared custody would harm the child. Custody (decision-making responsibility) is a separate legal question from where the child actually lives day to day (collocamento), which is often settled practically even when custody itself is fully shared.

This is an educational overview written for parents, not lawyers. It isn't legal advice, and Italian family law can turn on the specifics of your situation. For anything beyond general understanding, talk to a licensed Italian family law attorney (avvocato matrimonialista) or consult the Ministero della Giustizia.

Affidamento condiviso: shared custody as the legal default

Law 54/2006 rewrote how Italy handles custody after separation, divorce, annulment, or proceedings involving children born outside marriage. Before that reform, sole custody to one parent was the ordinary outcome. Law 54/2006 reversed the presumption: shared custody is now the rule, and it's built into how judges are required to approach every case.

Article 337-ter of the Codice Civile sets out the framework. It opens by stating that a child has the right to a "rapporto equilibrato e continuativo" (a balanced and continuous relationship) with each parent, to receive care and moral guidance from both, and to preserve meaningful relationships with relatives on each side. From there, the judge's task in any separation or custody proceeding is to evaluate, first and as a priority, whether the child can be entrusted to both parents. Only if that isn't workable does the judge move to designating one parent instead.

Under shared custody, both parents jointly exercise parental responsibility (responsabilità genitoriale). Decisions about the child's education, upbringing, health, and choice of habitual residence require the parents' mutual agreement, considering the child's own capacities and wishes; if they can't agree, either parent can bring the disagreement to the court. Day-to-day, routine decisions can generally be handled by whichever parent has the child at the time, without needing sign-off from the other.

When sole custody applies

Article 337-quater covers the exception: affidamento esclusivo, custody to a single parent. It applies only when the judge determines that placing the child under shared custody would be contrary to the child's interest, for example because of a parent's unfitness, abusive conduct, neglect, or an inability to cooperate that itself harms the child.

Two things make this an exception rather than an alternative on equal footing with shared custody:

• The judge must issue a provvedimento motivato, a reasoned, motivated ruling that specifically explains why shared custody was rejected in this case. A bare preference for one parent isn't enough.
• Courts have held that a parent's request for sole custody, if it turns out to be clearly unfounded, can be weighed against that parent when the judge decides on other measures, a deliberate disincentive against using sole-custody requests as leverage.

Even when sole custody is granted, it isn't a clean break from the other parent's involvement. The non-custodial parent keeps the right and duty to monitor the child's education and upbringing, can challenge decisions they believe harm the child, and decisions of major importance for the child generally still require both parents unless the court orders otherwise.

Affidamento vs. collocamento

One of the more distinctive features of Italian custody law is the separation between two questions that other jurisdictions sometimes bundle together:

• Affidamento (custody): who holds parental responsibility and decision-making authority. In the large majority of cases, this is shared (condiviso) between both parents regardless of where the child physically lives.
• Collocamento (placement): the practical, separate question of which parent's home the child lives in day to day. This is typically settled by agreement between the parents or, failing that, decided by the judge as part of the same proceeding.

The parent the child primarily lives with is informally called the genitore collocatario (custodial/placement parent); the other is the genitore non collocatario. Crucially, being the non-collocatario parent doesn't reduce that parent's legal custody rights, shared affidamento means both parents retain equal standing on major decisions even though only one home is the child's primary residence. This distinction is well established in Italian family law practice, though it isn't spelled out as a single defined term inside Article 337-ter itself, courts and practitioners apply it consistently when structuring shared-custody orders.

How Italian courts decide

Whether the outcome is shared or sole custody, and whatever the placement arrangement, Article 337-ter directs the judge to weigh:

• The child's needs, including continuity of relationships with each parent and wider family
• Each parent's capacity to care for the child and cooperate with the other parent
• The child's own capacities, inclinations, and (where age-appropriate) wishes
• Practical factors: each parent's home, work schedule, and proximity to the child's school and community

The judge also acknowledges and generally gives weight to any agreement the parents reach themselves, particularly one reached through mediazione familiare (family mediation), reflecting a broader preference in Italian practice for parents to work out arrangements between themselves where possible rather than litigate every detail.

Which court hears these cases

Custody and parental-responsibility disputes tied to separation, divorce, or annulment go to the Tribunale ordinario (ordinary civil court), which has held this jurisdiction since Italy's 2012-2013 reform of filiation law consolidated these matters there. The Tribunale per i Minorenni (juvenile court) retains a narrower, residual role, mainly cases involving the limitation or removal of parental responsibility under Articles 330 and 333 of the Codice Civile, typically brought by a prosecutor or relatives in situations of necessity or urgency, rather than routine separation-driven custody questions.

Parenting time and schedules

Italian law doesn't prescribe a default calendar. Article 337-ter simply requires the judge to set "the timing and manner of the child's presence with each parent," case by case. In practice, families and courts land on arrangements ranging from alternating weeks to weekday/weekend splits, shaped by the child's age, school, and each parent's proximity and schedule, similar in spirit to how other jurisdictions approach the same question even without a shared national default. Use the custody schedule generator to turn whatever arrangement you and your co-parent settle on, or that the court orders, into an actual working calendar.

Practical considerations

Because shared custody is the norm rather than the exception in Italy, most co-parenting after separation legally involves both parents in ongoing decisions, even when the child lives mostly with one of them. That makes a clear, shared record of the schedule, decisions, and communications between co-parents useful in practice, not just for cases headed to court, but for day-to-day coordination under an arrangement where both parents remain legally responsible.

Official Italian resources

• Ministero della Giustizia: Custodia Figli Minorenni e Responsabilità Genitoriale
• Codice Civile, Articolo 337-ter (Normattiva, official)
• Codice Civile, Articolo 337-quater (Normattiva, official)

Related OnePage resources

• Custody schedule generator
• How to choose a custody schedule
• Legal custody vs. physical custody

Related Italy pages

• Italy hub
• Italy child support guide