It starts life as a private paper
A branch letter confirming your balance, your standing or the age of your account is written on bank paper by a bank employee. No public office issued it. That single fact shapes everything that follows, because Italian legalisation desks stamp public seals and certified signatures, never a private letterhead on its own.
So the route has three moves rather than two. First somebody with authority certifies that the signature on the letter is real. Then an Italian desk legalises that certified signature. Only then does the consulate add its own mark. Knowing how to legalize a Bank Reference Letter is mostly knowing that the first move exists.
Who signs, and who vouches for the signature
Ask the branch in Padua who is entitled to sign a letter for use abroad, and get that person to sign in ink. A scanned signature or a bank stamp alone is thin. Then arrange the certification. A notaio can attest that the named officer signed in front of them, which suits a reader abroad that is a bank, a landlord or a court.
Which Padua counter takes it
Two desks share this work in the city and they divide it by the signature, not by the subject. The Prefettura, the Prefecture, handles papers whose signature belongs to a public office. The Procura della Repubblica handles judicial and notarial ones. A bank letter certified by a notaio therefore follows the notarial line to the Procura.
If the certification instead comes from a public body, the Prefettura di Padova is the desk you want. Ask when you book, because the counters do not forward files to each other. This is where embassy legalization of a Bank Reference Letter in Padua most often stalls: right paper, wrong queue.
Money and days
There is a €16 marca da bollo on the Italian side, plus whatever the notaio charges for the certification and whatever the consulate charges for its seal. Only the tax stamp is a fixed figure; the other two vary and both should be asked about in advance. Plan on 10–15 business days overall, or 3–5 business days if the mission runs a fast lane.
Keeping the letter fresh
Nothing in this chain ages faster than the letter itself. A statement of funds describes a moment, and readers abroad know it. Visa desks, tender boards and landlords often set a window of weeks, not months, so a letter that has spent a fortnight in a queue may already be too old. Ask for the window first, then order the letter, then move.
Whether the last step is owed at all depends on the country of destination, so put that question to the receiving authority and act on their written answer. Some readers are satisfied by a single-step certification from Italy. Others insist on embassy attestation of a Bank Reference Letter in Padua before they will open a file. Where a sworn version is wanted too, have it made before the Italian desk signs, so consular legalization of a Bank Reference Letter in Italy covers both sheets at once.