Start at the court registry
A ruling lives in the court file, and what you take away is a copy. The registry clerk prints it, signs it and seals it as a true copy of what the judge decided. That signed copy is the only version any later office will work with. A print from your own folder, however clean, has nothing on it a clerk can check.
So how to apostille a court order starts with a request at the registry window, made in the name of a party or their lawyer. Say what the copy is for and which country will read it. The clerk can then tell you which extra notes are worth adding while the file is open. Asking once at the start saves a second visit later.
Same building, a different window
Judicial papers are stamped by the Procura della Repubblica, which sits in the court itself, and only at the court in whose district the act was formed. Papers from a town hall or another public body are administrative and go to the Prefettura, the state office for the province. A ruling is plainly in the first group, so the walk between windows is short.
To apostille a court order in Genoa the certified copy must carry the signature of a clerk from that court. The prosecutor's office holds samples of those signatures and compares them. This is why the paper cannot be stamped in the city where you now live, and why a copy from a lawyer's file will not do.
Fee and how long it takes
The apostille cost for a court order in Genoa is a €16 tax stamp per document, and some documents are exempt. The registry may charge its own fee for the copy, which that office sets. Most of the wait is at the registry rather than the stamp, because a clerk has to pull the file. Where a hearing date abroad is fixed, order the copy the day you decide to use it.
What people do with a stamped ruling
Divorce and custody decisions travel most often, because a registry abroad wants them before a remarriage or a school place. Others send an adoption order, a name change, a probate ruling or a decision in a company dispute. Italy has been in the Hague Apostille Convention since 1978, so its member states accept the single stamp on the clerk's copy.
Language, names and dates
Rulings run long and the reader abroad rarely speaks Italian. You will usually need a translation, and many desks want it sworn in front of a Tribunale, an Italian court, so the wording is held to be accurate. The rules to apostille a court order in Italy are the same in each province, yet the translation rules belong to whoever reads the file.
Before you send it, match every name, date of birth and case number against the passports of the people involved. A married name on one page and a maiden name on another is enough for a registry to stop. The legalisation of a court order in Genoa for a country outside the Hague list runs through further offices, so ask that country's desk which route it wants.