Prostitution in Italy

In Italy prostitution (Italian: prostituzione), defined as the exchange of sexual services for money, is legal, although organized prostitution, whether indoors in brothels or controlled by third parties, is prohibited. Brothels were banned in 1958. An euphemism often used to refer to sex workers in Italy is Lucciole (lit. "fireflies").

Prostitution thrived in Italy in the Middle Ages. The city of Venice declared in 1358 that brothels were indispensable, and courtesans achieved high social status in Venice, particularly in the 17th century.

The Regolamentazione, or the regulation system of prostitution, was established in 1861, with Italian unification, modeled on the French Napoleonic system of Réglementation and the Bureau des Moeurs (a government office tasked with regulating vice, which included officially registering prostitutes). A 1859 decree, by Count Camillo Benso di Cavour to aid the French army which supported the Piedmontese in their fight against Austria, authorized the opening of houses controlled by the state for the exercise of prostitution in Lombardy. On 15 February 1860 the decree was signed into law (referred to as Legge Cavour) with the enactment of the "Regulations of the Security Service on Prostitution."

A further law (Legge Crispi), adopted on 29 March 1888, prohibited the selling of food and drinks, and parties, dances and songs in brothels, and banned such establishments near places of worship, schools and kindergartens. It also provided that the shutters should always remain closed, which is the origin of the Italian expression "closed houses" (case chiuse). A further amendment was the Legge Nicotera of 1891. Under this system prostitution in Italy was fully legal in private houses. A system of sifilicomi (hospitals for sex workers) was also set up, under the belief that they were the main sources of spreading venereal diseases.

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