Before you start

Codice fiscale
Passport or ID, plus permesso di soggiorno or its receipt for non-EU nationals
Proof of address — a registered lease is cleanest
Proof of income for the better-priced account tiers

Step-by-step

1
Open a digital account for the IBAN in week one
Rent, salary and utilities all want an Italian IBAN. Digital banks accept a codice fiscale and video identification and issue one within days, without a branch visit — which in Venice is worth more than elsewhere.
Mobile appWho: YouWeek 1
2
Choose a bank on where its branches actually are
Branches in the historic centre have thinned considerably and the larger ones are in Mestre. If you will ever need in-person banking — a mortgage, a dispute, an identity refresh — pick on the branch you can realistically reach.
In personWho: You
3
Get reclassified as resident once the comune registers you
Accounts opened before residence registration are often non-resident accounts with higher charges and product restrictions. Banks do not revisit the classification on their own.
In personWho: You
4
Set up SPID or the CIE identity
SPID is the login to the Italian state — the tax portal, INPS, the Veneto health booking system, the comune's services including the access-fee portal and the resident travel card, and the public payment app.
OnlineWho: YouWeek 2–4
5
Arrange direct debits for utilities and TARI
Domiciliazione avoids paying by bollettino at a post office. In a city where the post office queue may be twenty minutes' walk and a bridge away, this is not a small saving.
OnlineWho: You
6
Expect the annual account stamp duty
Italy charges an imposta di bollo on accounts above an average-balance threshold and on securities accounts. It is a tax, not a bank fee.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Codice fiscale
Passport or national ID
Permesso di soggiorno or postal receipt
Registered lease or certificate of residence
Employment contract or recent payslips

Things most newcomers don’t know

In Venice, choosing a bank you can reach without a boat is a real criterion.

Branch closures have hit the historic centre hard, and the substantial branches — the ones that handle mortgages, disputes and document refreshes — are largely on the mainland. A bank that looks equivalent on paper can mean a forty-minute round trip for something that would take fifteen minutes elsewhere. Combining a digital account for daily use with a mainland branch relationship for anything serious is the arrangement most residents settle on.

Source: community-reported

SPID does more work here than in most Italian cities because so many local services are online.

The comune's access-fee portal, the resident travel card, residence certificates, the Veneto health booking system, the tax portal and INPS all sit behind SPID or the CIE. In a city where the in-person alternative involves a vaporetto, the digital identity converts a morning into five minutes. It should be one of the first things set up rather than something got round to.

Source: AgID; Comune di Venezia

A registered lease is what makes residence, banking and the resident travel card possible.

Landlords must register a tenancy with the Agenzia delle Entrate within 30 days, and the registration receipt is what the anagrafe, the bank and the ULSS accept as proof of address. In a centre where a large share of the stock is short-let or second-home, informal arrangements are common — and an unregistered lease leaves you unable to register residence, which costs you the vaporetto fare, the access-charge exemption and the health card. Ask for the receipt before paying a deposit.

Source: Agenzia delle Entrate

Italy caps cash payments between private parties by law.

Cash transfers above a statutory ceiling between individuals are prohibited outright, with penalties for both payer and payee, and the limit has moved several times. It catches rental deposits and boat purchases in particular. Check the ceiling in force before any large payment and pay by transfer, which also creates the record you will want in a dispute.

Source: Ministry of Economy and Finance