Fireworks display regulations in Italy: art. 57 TULPS licence, Questore or Sindaco, fochino and Commissione tecnica

The Testo unico delle leggi di pubblica sicurezza (Royal Decree of 18 June 1931, no. 773, TULPS) forbids in its article 57 the lighting of fireworks, firing of weapons or launching of rockets without a licence from the local public security authority. That authority is the Questore, or the territorially competent Commissariato di pubblica sicurezza; in municipalities that have neither, the licence is issued by the Sindaco (mayor). The istanza is most often filed through the municipality's SUAP or directly with the Questura, with revenue stamp.

Prefectures publish the procedure: the application must be submitted at least thirty days before the planned firing date, by the organiser or by the pyrotechnician, and includes the site description, the list of fireworks with type and quantity, documentation from the municipal technical office on site constraints, the fochino's licence and insurance. The licence states the type and quantity of fireworks and the safety, public order and protection requirements.

Article 49 of the TULPS establishes a Commissione tecnica for explosives at the prefecture. For fireworks it gives its opinion on the suitability of the site: for a permanent site, on the basis of the allegato 1 file and a visit, with the municipal technical services and the mayor taking part; for a provisional site, on the allegato 2 documentation and, where necessary, an inspection. Ministry of the Interior circulars no. 559/C.25055.XV.A.Mass. of 11 January 2001 and no. 26468 of 30 July 2014 frame this procedure.

When the Commissione has to meet or visit the site, prefectures often ask for more than the regulatory thirty days; some indicate sixty days. A site already recognised as suitable lightens subsequent firings. PyroDesk keeps, per firing location, the site file (plan, distances, opinions) to reuse it from one year to the next and attach the documents to the istanza.

Firing is reserved to the fochino, holder of the licence provided by article 47 of the TULPS and article 101 of the implementing regulation (Royal Decree 635/1940). The technical suitability certificate is issued by the Prefetto after a favourable opinion of the Commissione tecnica provinciale, which assesses the candidate's knowledge of fireworks, safety distances, set-up and misfire handling; the licence is personal and renewed according to local rules.

The article 57 istanza includes the identity of the responsible fochino and assistants, copies of their licence and the liability insurance. A foreign pyrotechnician without an Italian licence must rely on a licensed Italian fochino. PyroDesk stores each operator's qualifications and expiry dates and alerts when a licence expires before a display date. The same record holds the prefectural suitability certificate and its renewal date, so the crew list attached to the istanza is always current.

The requirements usually written into licences impose that the public be kept beyond the safety distance from the ignition point, road closure within a minimum 200-metre radius, maintained access for emergency vehicles and the presence of a fire prevention team; distances per calibre are those declared by the manufacturer for each CE article and carried into the safety plan.

The company supplies a scaled plan with firing zone, safety zone and public positioning, together with the list of fireworks by category and net mass. PyroDesk generates that plan with the radius of each firing position and the product list, exportable to PDF for the Questura, the SUAP and the vigili del fuoco. Each product line carries the manufacturer's distance, so the plan reflects the largest calibre actually fired rather than a generic value.

Italy fires a large share of its displays during patron saint festivals and on New Year's Eve; many municipalities issue ordinances limiting hours, banning certain articles or imposing distances from woodland and beaches in periods of fire risk, particularly in summer in the southern regions. These ordinances come on top of the article 57 licence and may lead the Questore to tighten its conditions.

PyroDesk's Italy formalities page recalls, per region, the competent authorities (Questura, Commissariato or Sindaco, SUAP) and the expected documents, and lets you set a reminder at D-60 for new sites and D-30 for sites already recognised by the Commissione tecnica. The file also keeps the history of licences obtained for the same venue, useful for patron saint festivals that return on a fixed date every year, and the operator attaches the municipal ordinance in force.

Since 2019 Italy has required electronic invoicing through the Agenzia delle Entrate's Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) for transactions between resident taxable persons, in FatturaPA XML format; a foreign company invoicing an Italian client from abroad is not subject to the SdI, but its client may ask for structured formats. Quotes and contracts are expected in Italian, often with the manager's stamp and signature.

PyroDesk produces quotes, contracts and the client portal in Italian, computes net masses per category for the list attached to the istanza, gathers fochino licences, insurance and plan in the display file, and issues invoices in a structured format compliant with European standard EN 16931, the interoperability basis with SdI formats. It does not replace the Questore's licence: it makes sure nothing is missing from the file.