A notarial act, not an office paper
A deed signed in front of a notaio is not a town-hall paper, and the two counters in Padua split along exactly that line. Sheets from a Comune, a school or a chamber go to the Prefettura, sometimes rendered Prefecture on foreign-facing forms. Anything a judge or a notaio put their name to goes instead to the Procura della Repubblica at the court.
Getting the right copy from the notaio
You will never send the original. The notaio keeps it bound in his own register for good, and issues a copia conforme, a copy he certifies as matching that original. Order that copy from the studio that drew up the act. Say plainly that it is leaving the country, so the notaio adds the wording foreign desks look for.
Two small things decide whether the copy survives the trip. The certifying line must be signed by hand and dated, not printed. And the copy must be complete: every page, every annex, and the statuto if your reader asked for it as well. A part-copy is the commonest reason a bundle comes back.
The court counter that seals it
The Procura della Repubblica sits at the Tribunale di Padova and keeps a specimen of every local notaio's signature. Its clerk compares your certifying line with that specimen, then adds a legalisation stamp on the back. That single check is the whole of the Italian step. It is also why how to legalize an Articles of Incorporation begins with the notaio's signature, not with the company itself.
What it costs
The Italian charge is small and fixed: a €16 marca da bollo, the tax stamp that rides with the deed. Buy it before you queue. The consulate then adds a fee of its own, which each mission sets, publishes and revises when it likes. Read that price list on the morning you go rather than trusting a figure a colleague quoted last year.
The timetable
Count 10–15 business days from ordering the copia conforme to holding the consular seal. Where the mission runs an urgent lane, 3–5 business days is possible. Whether the consular step is owed at all rests on the destination. Ask the receiving authority to answer that in writing before you build a deadline around embassy legalization of an Articles of Incorporation in Padua.
What readers abroad check
Registrars, banks and tender offices all read this deed for the same three facts: who owns the company, who may sign for it, and what it is allowed to do. When they ask for consular legalization of an Articles of Incorporation in Italy they are really asking for proof that the deed is genuine. Pair it with a fresh chamber of commerce extract if ownership has moved since the founding day.
Sequence matters if a sworn version is also wanted. Order it before the court signs, so the seal lands on the deed and the sworn sheet together. Doing it the other way round means paying to legalize an Articles of Incorporation in Padua twice. Ask the receiving office to name, in writing, the language it will read, and get embassy attestation of an Articles of Incorporation in Padua on the finished pair.