How to Make a Will in Italy: Olografo, Pubblico, and Segreto

Italian law recognizes three ordinary forms of will (art. 601 c.c.): the testamento olografo, written entirely by hand; the testamento pubblico, made before a notaio; and the testamento segreto, a sealed will delivered to a notaio without the notaio reading its contents. Each has its own formal requirements, and getting them wrong is the most common reason a homemade will fails.

This page works through what each form requires, how a will can be revoked or replaced, what happens to an olografo after death, and the difference between a defect that makes a will void outright and one that merely leaves it open to challenge. For how a will interacts with the tax authority, see our page on filing the dichiarazione di successione.

Information verified on 20 July 2026. This page provides general legal information and does not constitute legal advice for an individual situation.

The three ordinary forms

Art. 601 c.c. sets out the ordinary forms available to anyone making a will in Italy: the testamento olografo and the testamento per atto di notaio, which is itself either pubblico or segreto. All three carry the same legal effect once validly made; the difference is entirely in how each is created, who is involved, and where practical risk sits afterward.

Testamento olografo: the one that most often fails on form

Art. 602 c.c. requires an olografo to be written entirely by the testator's own hand, dated, and signed by the testator at the end of the dispositions. The signature does not need to include a full first and last name; it is valid if it identifies the testator with certainty. The date must include the day, month, and year, and can only be challenged as inaccurate in narrow circumstances, such as disputing the testator's capacity at the time or the priority between two competing wills.

This is where homemade wills go wrong most often. Because the requirement is that the document be written entirely by hand, a will typed on a computer and merely signed by hand is not a valid olografo, even if every word reflects the testator's genuine wishes. A will partly handwritten and partly typed, or one where someone else's hand appears in the dispositive text itself, has the same problem. The form is strict specifically because there is no notaio and no witness verifying, at the time the will is made, that it genuinely reflects the testator's free intent; the handwriting requirement is doing that verification work instead.

Testamento pubblico: the notarial form

Art. 603 c.c. requires a testamento pubblico to be received by a notaio in the presence of two witnesses. The testator states their wishes to the notaio, who reduces them to writing; the notaio then reads the will back to the testator in front of the witnesses, and the will records that each of these steps took place.

The completed document must show the place, the date it was received, and the time of signing, and it must be signed by the testator, the witnesses, and the notaio. If the testator cannot sign, or can only do so with real difficulty, the reason must be stated and recorded by the notaio before the reading takes place. A testator who is mute, deaf, or deaf-mute follows the rules set for notarial acts involving such persons, and a testator who cannot read at all requires four witnesses rather than two.

Because a notaio and two witnesses are present when the will is made, the pubblico form carries the least formal risk of the three: the notaio confirms the testator's identity and apparent capacity at that time, and the document becomes part of the notaio's own records rather than something the testator has to keep safe.

Testamento segreto: rare, and less forgiving than it looks

Art. 604 c.c. permits a testamento segreto, written either by the testator or by a third party, sealed, and delivered to a notaio without the notaio (or the witnesses) ever seeing its contents. If the testator wrote it personally, it must be signed at the end of the dispositions; if someone else wrote it, in whole or in part, or if it was written by mechanical means, the testator's signature must appear on every half-sheet, joined or separate. A testator who can read but cannot write, or who was unable to sign when the dispositions were written down, must declare to the notaio receiving the will that they read it and state why they could not sign, and that declaration is recorded in the act. Someone who cannot read at all is barred from using this form entirely.

In practice, the testamento segreto is used far less often than the other two, since it combines the formal exposure of an olografo with the logistics of a notarial appointment, without the notaio's substantive review of its contents.

The legittima limits all three forms

Whichever form is used, none of the three can validly cut a legittimario, a close relative with a legally reserved share, such as a spouse, child, or, absent children, a parent, below what the law reserves for them. A legittimario who has been shortchanged can bring an azione di riduzione to restore that reserved portion. This site has a dedicated page covering the legittima's fractions and how the reserved and freely disposable portions are calculated for different family situations; the mechanics of that calculation are outside the scope of this page.

Revoking a will, and reviving one you already revoked

A testator remains free to revoke a will at any point while alive. Art. 680 c.c. requires express revocation to take one of two forms: a new will, or an act received by a notaio in the presence of two witnesses in which the testator personally declares the earlier will revoked, in whole or in part. Revoking a will does not have to be the last word: art. 681 c.c. allows the testator to revoke that revocation too, using the same formalities, and doing so revives the originally revoked dispositions.

An olografo can also be revoked without any formal declaration at all, simply by destroying it. Art. 684 c.c. provides that an olografo that has been destroyed, torn, or crossed out, in whole or in part, is presumed to have been revoked by the testator, unless it can be proven that someone else destroyed or altered it, or that the testator did not intend to revoke it by doing so. That presumption is exactly why keeping a single, unwitnessed olografo somewhere no one else can find, or where a family member with an interest in the outcome has easy access to it, carries real risk: the document's disappearance or damage is legally read as the testator's own choice unless the contrary is proven.

Where to keep an olografo, and pubblicazione after death

Because an olografo is a single physical document with no independent record anywhere else, where it is kept matters. A testator can leave it with a trusted person, deposit it with a notaio, or keep it at home; each choice trades accessibility against the risk of loss, damage, or a family member with a conflicting interest finding it first.

Whatever the arrangement, art. 620 c.c. requires whoever holds an olografo to present it to a notaio for pubblicazione as soon as they learn the testator has died. Anyone with an interest can also petition the local giudice di pace to set a deadline for that presentation if it is not happening.

The notaio publishes the will before two witnesses, records its condition, reproduces its contents, and notes whether it was found sealed. Only once this pubblicazione has taken place does the olografo take effect. A will deposited with a notaio during the testator's life is published by that same notaio.

Void versus merely challengeable

Art. 606 c.c. draws a sharp line between two very different kinds of defect. A will is void outright, nullo, only where it lacks the handwriting or the signature required for an olografo, or, for a notarial will, where the notaio's written record of the testator's declarations or the signatures are missing. Any other formal defect, something short of that core failure, makes the will merely voidable, annullabile, at the request of anyone with an interest, and that challenge must be brought within five years of the date the will's dispositions were carried out.

The practical difference matters. A typed olografo, or one missing a signature entirely, is void from the outset regardless of whether anyone ever challenges it. A will with a smaller formal irregularity remains valid and enforceable unless someone with standing successfully challenges it within the five-year window.

Three scenarios

A woman writes her wishes on her laptop, prints the document, and signs it by hand in front of her adult children as witnesses. Because the dispositive text itself was not written by her own hand, this is not a valid olografo regardless of the signature or the witnesses present, and it is void under art. 606 c.c.

A man drafts a full olografo by hand, dates and signs it correctly, but months later tears it in anger during an unrelated argument, then has second thoughts and tapes it back together. Under art. 684 c.c., the tearing is presumed to have been a revocation by his own act; taping it back together does not automatically undo that presumption, and proving he never intended to revoke it would fall to whoever wants the will enforced.

A woman with a serious medical condition wants a will made quickly and reliably, with the least risk of a formal defect later. A testamento pubblico, made before a notaio with two witnesses present at that moment, carries the least formal risk of the three ordinary forms, since the notaio's involvement at the time of signing is itself part of what the law requires.

For the tax return a will's dispositions eventually feed into, see our page on filing the dichiarazione di successione, and for the rates that return calculates, see our page on Italy's inheritance tax. For the wider landscape of Italian law this site covers, see our Italy hub.