Which record you are asking for
The paper most employers mean is the certificato del casellario giudiziale, the record of criminal convictions held on you in Italy. Any adult may ask for their own. It is printed on a single sheet and signed by a court officer. What follows is how to legalize a Criminal Record Check so an office abroad will take it.
There is a second, different sheet: the certificato dei carichi pendenti, which lists charges still open against you. Visa desks and hiring boards abroad sometimes want both, and they are issued separately. Read the letter you were sent and count the papers it names. Asking for one when the reader wanted two costs a full round of stamps.
One building, two jobs
This record is a judicial paper, so the Procura della Repubblica handles it. That is the prosecutor's office at the court, and it both issues the sheet and stamps it for use abroad. The Prefettura, which deals with town-hall papers, plays no part. Embassy legalization of a Criminal Record Check in Rome therefore begins and continues in the same building.
The consulate's own stamp
After the court stamp, the file goes to the country that asked for it. Consular legalization of a Criminal Record Check in Italy is done by that country's embassy or consulate here, which checks the court seal and adds its own. Many missions want a sheet issued within a short window before it reaches them. Ask how short a window before you queue at the court.
Cost, clock and shelf life
Costs are modest: a €16 tax stamp (marca da bollo) on the request, then the consular fee the mission sets. Embassy attestation of a Criminal Record Check in Rome runs 10–15 business days, or 3–5 business days on the express route. The clock matters twice here, because the record itself ages while it waits in a queue.
If the file comes back
When the sheet is refused, the reason is usually its age or a name that does not match. Ask the court to print a fresh one rather than argue about the old. You can legalize a Criminal Record Check in Rome again quickly once the new sheet is in hand, because the route is short and by then familiar.
Before any of this, ask whether the chain applies at all. Whether a consular stamp is wanted depends on the destination, and only the authority that will read your record can settle it. A visa office may take a single-step certification instead. Put the question in an email and keep the answer, because staff change and rules move.