Telephone numbers in Italy are managed by the Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM), a national regulatory authority for the communication industry located in Rome.

Four types of emergency services use three-digit telephone numbers in the group 11X, including 112 for the Carabinieri.

Since 1998, the leading 0 of landline numbers has to be included also when calling from abroad, in contrast with the practice in many other countries.

Italian regulations prescribe no fixed rules for grouping the digits of telephone numbers for printing or display.

Prefixes are assigned on a geographical basis, starting from the north-west of the country, heading east and then south; for example: Turin has "011", Milan has "02", Brescia has "030", Trieste has "040", Florence has "055", Rome has prefix "06", Ancona has "071", Naples has "081", and Palermo has "091".

Some network operators allow the caller to insert additional digits for redirecting calls to voice mail.

[5] The extra digits vary based on the network operator managing the service.

The main advantage is the availability of millions of previously reserved phone numbers.

[13] The change was widely advertised with a campaign named "Fissa il prefisso" ("Attach the prefix").

Vatican landline telephone numbers are in the form "+39 06 698xxxxx", "+39" being the country code for Italy and "06" the prefix for Rome.