Apostille is the attestation of the authenticity and legitimacy of the signature of a Public Officer or Official who has signed and released a certain document.
Apostille is released by the competent Public Authority of the Country where the document has been formed and released. Through this attestation a public document is authenticated and certified to be legally valid in the other Countries of the Hague Conference on Private International Law on October 5, 1961
Apostilles may only be issued and affixed by a Competent Authority designated by the State where the target document has been issued / executed.
In Italy there are two designated competent Authorities which act on the type of document to be apostilled:
1) the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the courts in the jurisdiction in which the documents were issued in the case of judicial documents, court documents and notarial acts;
2) the Prefecture Office with territorial competence in the case of all other eligible administrative documents provided for in the Convention.