Why the court office, not the state branch
Italy sorts papers by who made them. A declaration you sign in front of a notary or another authorised official is a notarial act, known here as a dichiarazione sostitutiva di atto di notorietà. To apostille a Statutory Declaration in Italy you therefore go to the Procura della Repubblica, the office that sits with the court, and not to the Prefettura. The Prefettura handles papers that come out of ordinary public offices, which this one does not.
Signing it in front of an official
The act only exists once someone with authority watches you sign and records that. Do not print, sign at your kitchen table and hope for a stamp, because the court office has nothing to check in that case. Anyone working out how to apostille a Statutory Declaration should book the signing first and treat the stamp as the last step. Bring photo identity, know what you want to say, and read the sheet through before you put your name on it.
The district rule decides your court
The court office does not serve everyone in the country; it serves its own district. So you apostille a Statutory Declaration in Bologna when the act itself was formed in the district that this court covers. A declaration you signed in another province belongs to the court there, however inconvenient that is. Ask the official who takes your signature which court district covers the desk you are sitting at, and write the answer in your file.
What you pay for the stamp
The apostille cost for a Statutory Declaration in Bologna turns on a €16 tax stamp for the document. You buy it, fix it to the act, and lodge the pair together. Certain papers are let off that charge, so raise the question before you buy rather than after. What the notary or other official charges for taking your declaration is a separate matter and is set by that official, not by the court.
Wording that gets a file refused
The stamp says a signature is real. It does not say your statement is true, complete or fit for the purpose you have in mind. That is why the legalisation of a Statutory Declaration in Bologna so often stalls at the far end rather than at the court. The reader abroad wanted particular words and got yours. Ask that reader for its own model text or its list of points, then have the declaration drawn to match it before anyone signs.
After the stamp is on
Italy has issued this stamp under the 1961 Hague Convention since 1978, and the sheet is built to be read straight by an office in another country. Whether the office you are writing to will take it depends on that office, so put the question to it before you post anything. Keep the act, the stamp and any sworn translation bound as one item. Photograph the whole bundle first, so you can prove what left your hands.