Long stay visa for Italy- has anyone gotten one?

https://conssanfrancisco.esteri.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ELECTIVE-RESIDENCY-VISAS-SF-Consulate.pdf

https://www.studiolegalemetta.com/legal-questions-and-answers/italian-elective-residency-visa/

Thank you. Do you know if there is 365 day visa for tourism?

No. Tourists can stay only 90 days.
There are numerous types of long term visas (for study, academic research, for work, digital nomad worker, medical reasons, religious mission, and others), but the Elective Residency visa is the only one that is likely applicable to most retired people who do not fall in the above categories and just want to spend a full year in Italy just bumming around.

Thanks again. Have you ever had a Long Stay Visa?

To add to what Roberto said, the Elective Residency Visa is for those planning to retire in Italy permanently. You must demonstrate you have sufficient assets and passive income as working is forbidden under this visa. You also need to either own property or have a lease for a minimum of 12 months registered with the local comune. If you give even a hint of only wanting to stay for one year your application will be denied. Also, appointments at US consulates for the application are difficult to obtain. There is really no way to stay longer than 90 days as a tourist if you are not an EU citizen.

Thank you for all this information. We are not ready to say we’re moving to Italy, so I guess we’re back to the 90 day limit.

I think there are at least 3 contributors to this Forum who stayed (or still are) in Italy on an elective residency visa. One is Laurel who worked also at the US embassy in Rome. I think she went that route after she retired and stayed in Italy a few years. Another lady from Canada (Nelly) also did the same and now lives in Abruzzo. Then there was another lady (don't recall the name off hand) who lived in Verbania, on lake Maggiore during the pandemic, I think she came back and now lives in Monterey, CA.

I don't need extended visas, as I am a dual (US/Italian) citizen, so I'm not bound to time limits. Just be aware that if you stay in Italy over 183 days over a calendar year, you become an Italian resident for tax purposes, therefore you will need to pay income taxes to Italy. The bilateral tax treaty btw US/Italy exempts public pensions (Social Security) from Italian taxation (you will pay tax on that to the US), but everything else (investment income, private pensions, 401k distributions) are taxed by Italy and tax rates are about double US tax rates. Of course many Americans stay in Italy a couple of years, without filing an Italian tax return (i.e. evade Italian taxes), then return home before the authorities catch up to them, but that is not the legal way to avoid Italian taxes (Sophia Loren, in the early 1980's, spent a couple of weeks in prison for tax evasion in Italy, when she was caught for tax evasion while she was visiting Italy from France, where she resided)

Then there was another lady (don't recall the name off hand) who lived
in Verbania, on lake Maggiore during the pandemic, I think she came
back and now lives in Monterey, CA.

This is her! As her profile notes, they stayed in Italy for 28 months.
https://community.ricksteves.com/users/36682

Many of us followed "Barley’s Grand Adventures" with delight while they lived in Italy, and shared Karen's sadness when she posted last year that he'd passed. Hopefully she'll see your post, Becky.

Editing to add: see what she wrote about preparing for a long stay in Italy in her post within this thread back in 2018:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/living-in-europe

Kathy, thank you for sharing about Karen! I was Facebook friends with their Barley’s Adventures site and enjoyed it so much since I usually stay in Stresa to get over jet lag when traveling in northern Italy. Felt bad that they were there during Covid. My Facebook account was hacked a year ago, and I had to delete everything and lost touch with them.

I had an ERV, obtained through the Boston consulate, and lived in Rome just under two years before returning to the US for a reason unrelated to my love of Italy. Happy to answer any questions about the visa process.

Hi Jean! You could probably reconnect with Karen if you sent her a PM? It's fun to see her pop into the forums now and again with her always useful advice, and nice to see that she has kept on travelin'. :O)