Swearing your statement in Genoa
An affidavit is a statement you swear is true. In Italy you make it in front of a notary or a court clerk, who watches you sign and then signs below you. That act of signing turns your words into a notarial act. Because the act is notarial, it takes the court route and not the town-hall one.
Once the notary has signed, you can ask how to apostille an Affidavit so that a reader abroad will trust it. An apostille is a single stamp that proves the signature on your paper is real. It says nothing about whether your story is true. That part rests on your oath alone.
The desk that stamps a notarial act
To apostille an Affidavit in Genoa you go to the Procura della Repubblica, the prosecutor's office housed at the court. It handles judicial and notarial acts, and only at the court in whose district the act was formed. Papers from the town hall are administrative, so they go to the Prefettura, the prefecture, instead. Taking a sworn statement to the Prefettura is the most common wasted trip.
The rules to apostille an Affidavit in Italy do not shift from city to city, yet the desk always does. Only the court that keeps a notary's signature on file can match it. So a statement sworn before a notary here cannot be stamped in Rome or Milan, even though the stamp itself looks the same.
What it costs and how long it takes
The apostille cost for an Affidavit in Genoa is a €16 tax stamp per document, and some documents are exempt. You buy the stamp yourself and hand it in with the paper. Ask the clerk which case yours falls under, because a stamp you did not need is money you will not get back. Time at the desk swings with the queue, so plan for more than one visit.
Where a stamped sworn statement is used
People swear these papers to claim an estate, to show they are free to marry, to name an heir, or to back a visa file. A bank or a court abroad wants the oath, not a plain letter from you. Italy joined the Hague Apostille Convention in 1978, so one stamp is enough for the states that signed it. Ask the reading desk in writing what wording they want before you swear anything.
Language and the usual refusals
The stamp does not turn your words into another language. If the office abroad reads one, you need a translation, and many desks want it sworn in front of a Tribunale, the Italian court, so the wording is held to be accurate. Ask that desk first, because the legalisation of an Affidavit in Genoa for a country outside the Hague list can run to more steps. A blank date or a missing seal is the usual reason a file comes back.