Filming permits in Milan: who needs one and who doesn't

The permit question usually comes up two days before the shoot, and the answer is unconvincing in both its versions: "nothing is needed, everyone shoots like that" or "you can't shoot anything without paperwork". In practice the rules are few, and a great many shoots in Italy never come near them.

The short answer: do I need a permit to film?

Shooting for yourself. No permit is needed for the shoot itself: the City of Milan puts it plainly — amateur filming does not require authorisation.

Shooting in a studio, showroom, restaurant, hotel or private villa. The municipal application process generally does not apply here — it is settled with the owner of the space, including the right to use shots in which the interior is recognisable. The exception is buildings protected as cultural heritage: there the rules of the institution responsible for the property apply on top.

Commercial shooting on the street. Authorisation is required. In the historic centre, parks, gardens and municipal buildings it goes through the city portal; outside the centre, through the municipal police.

Putting anything on the ground: a tripod, a light stand, a reflector. That is occupation of public land, and it is applied for separately — whatever you are shooting for.

The rest of this article is the detail behind those four lines.

What decides the answer: purpose, place, equipment

Purpose. The line is drawn by what the material is for, not by the class of camera. Shooting for advertising, a catalogue or a commercial film needs a permit whether you shoot on a cinema camera or a phone. Shooting for yourself does not, even if the camera costs more.

A separate case is a paid private shoot: someone hires a photographer, but the material goes into a family archive rather than into advertising. The city publishes no specific rule for it, and if you are on public land with stands, the occupation still has to be registered.

Place. Private property means an agreement with the owner. Public land means the city's rules. Within the city the rules differ too: the historic centre, parks and municipal buildings are handled differently from the rest.

Equipment. Handheld shooting and a set with stands are two different things. Equipment resting on the ground occupies public land, which is exactly why the application asks for a description of the kit as a separate item.

Filming in the street in Milan: how the procedure works

Applications are submitted online only, through the city portal GeoEventi. They state the date, time, place and purpose of the shoot, a description of the equipment, the applicant's ID and any related permits.

The city does not regulate who submits: it can be the production company or the client. On our projects we file the application — you do not have to navigate the portal or submit documents in your own name.

Deadlines depend on the genre, and the city sets the split out.

A commercial brand shoot is the first line. The thirty days apply to film production, not to advertising, and confusing the two categories is the most common reason people believe a shoot in Milan has to be planned a month out.

These are filing deadlines, not response times: the city does not commit to issuing the permit by your shoot day, so a buffer always helps.

Outside the historic centre authorisation is required in any case — with or without occupation of public land — but it is handled by the events office of the municipal police rather than the portal.

What a filming permit in Milan costs

City of Milan tariffs for the historic centre, parks and municipal buildings, as of 1 September 2026:

The slots are fixed — 08:00–14:00, 14:00–20:00, 20:00–08:00 — and the tariff is charged for each one you use. A shoot that stays inside a single slot is charged once; one that runs from the afternoon slot into the evening, twice. Worth knowing in advance: a shoot with sunset light almost always falls across two slots, and an hour of work after 20:00 doubles the city tariff. Add a 16 € stamp duty (*marca da bollo*) on filing and another on issue of the permit.

With us the city tariff and the stamp duties are included in the quote: they do not arrive as an extra line.

Outside the historic centre the procedure and the amounts are set separately by the municipal police.

The deposit, which people usually ask about, applies to feature films, TV series and *fiction* occupying public land; it does not apply to advertising or photography. Film work also carries fixed processing fees of 25 €.

When filming permission is free

Exemption from the tariffs covers shoots commissioned or sponsored by the city, shoots by public bodies, shoots by not-for-profit organisations, work done in the exercise of press freedom, and television programmes. The not-for-profit category takes in public-interest campaigns, student work from photography and film schools, and semi-amateur shoots made for cultural competitions, prizes and festivals.

It does not apply automatically: the grounds for exemption are declared when filing, and the city confirms them.

Buildings and monuments: what can be shot freely

Some countries have freedom of panorama — the right to freely use images of whatever is visible from public space. Italy has no such rule, which comes as a recurring surprise.

Photographing from the street is fine. The question arises with commercial use of the image, in two cases.

Cultural heritage. The Cultural Heritage Code (D.Lgs. 42/2004, arts. 107–108) requires commercial reproduction of images of state cultural property to be agreed with the institution responsible for it, for a fee. Reproduction for personal use, study and non-profit promotion carries no fee; ministerial decree no. 108 of 21 March 2024 updated the tariffs and widened the exemptions. This is not a formality: disputes over such images in advertising have reached the Italian courts, and the courts have sided with the institutions.

Contemporary architecture. A building can be a copyright work where it has creative character; protection runs for 70 years after the author's death.

The restriction bites when the building is the subject of a commercial shot. A cityscape in which a building simply happens to be in the background does not.

People in frame

There are two independent layers here, and a commercial shoot has to handle both.

Image rights. Articles 96–97 of law 633/1941: a person's portrait may not be published or used commercially without their consent. The exceptions — fame, public interest, news and cultural purposes — do not extend to advertising.

Personal data. The GDPR adds a second layer: the image of a recognisable person is personal data.

A single form usually covers both — the liberatoria, setting out the purpose, the channels, the term, the territory and any fee. "For any use" does not work: consent has to be specific. In practice, list the channels generously, including ones that may be needed a year from now — widening the list afterwards is harder than setting it out at the start. For minors, parents sign.

The forms and collecting signatures on set are down to us. What we need from you is the one thing the form cannot be completed without: where the material will live, and for how long.

Passers-by are a separate matter. Article 97 allows filming a person within a public scene where their image is not the main subject; a close-up of a passer-by in a commercial does not fall under that exception.

Drones: what to know if aerial work is planned

Flights fall under EU regulations 2019/947 and 2019/945 and ENAC rules: the operator registered, the pilot holding a valid certificate, the flight insured. These fall on the drone pilot and operator, and the paperwork has to be in place before take-off.

There is one change worth knowing: since 1 January 2026 it is no longer possible to fly under the Italian national scenarios IT-STS, which were valid until 31 December 2025 — declarations filed earlier have lapsed, and the European STS scenarios apply instead. If aerial work is offered on the basis of an old Italian declaration, the paperwork is worth checking.

Milan is a special case: ENAC has designated a restricted zone here, LI-R9, and flying in it requires clearance from the Prefecture of Milan. Applications must be filed at least 15 working days before the flight; late or incomplete ones can be rejected without review. The clearance covers public order and security only and does not replace the other approvals. Aviation restrictions for any given spot, including airport zones, are shown on the D-Flight map. For a drone shoot, a copy of the request sent to the Prefecture is attached to the municipal application. The Prefecture does not state a response time.

If you are planning aerial filming with us, send us the address and we will check the zone before you book. How we work with drones is explained on our drone photo and video page.

Who does what

The table shows the typical split; on a given project it is fixed in the quote before the shoot.

Beyond that list there is one thing you only see on location: the municipal police can stop a shoot that has no permit, and a lost day with a crew already paid for costs more than any tariff. That is why permits go into preparation alongside location and timing — as part of production, not as a surprise.

The rules here are Milan's: other cities have their own municipal procedures, tariffs and deadlines, but the logic is the same — purpose, place, equipment.

*Tariffs, deadlines and legal provisions are taken from official material published by the City of Milan and ENAC as of 1 September 2026. City tariffs are revised over time; this article describes the general rules and typical cases, while a specific project is checked during preparation.*