Passport

Yes, any person is required to be able to provide legal ID if requested by police (not just if driving a car or being a foreign citizen, like in the USA). That would be a resident card for residents and a passport for visitors. See other passport issues discussed at http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning/travel-documents. You can read a variety of traveler responses to the issue by using the term "carry passport" in the search box above.

And let the recurring "carry passports" battle begin!

Seriously, all the comments that are about to follow fall into one of two categories:
1. Carry your passport because it's the law.
2. Yes, it's the law but I will risk not carrying mine.

The Italy Forum's equivalent of the movie Groundhog Day.

We don't walk around with our passport all day in Italy. I leave ours with 1. either the front desk (they take it anyway to check us in legally) or 2. leave it in the room (safe).

Actually a foreign national in the US is also required to carry a passport or a Permanent Resident card.

The law requires that if you are requested by a law enforcement officer to exhibit your passport, if you don't do so and have no justified reason, you are punishable with the arrest for up to one year and a fine of up to 2000 euro.

Some people prefer to take the risk and leave it in the hotel room. That is up to you, but if you do, it's a good idea to have at least a photocopy of your US passport with you as well as another form of ID (like your drivers' license). Those don't put you in a legal condition, but it's more likely that you might get away if you happen to be requested an ID. That is however very rare if you are just walking around, but if you intend to drive, random spot checks of drivers are very common.

I leave the copies in the room and carry my passport. With all that is happening in the world I feel better if for some reason we cannot get back to our hotel because of some incident I will have the most important things with me. My clothes and luggage can be replaced. If I have money, credit cards a phone and a passport I can manage.

After having my very secure and locked small backpack cut from my back in northern Italy, I was very happy that I had left my passport in the hotel safe and carried the laminated photo copy. It was hard enough losing my phone, drivers license and ATM card together with my camera and cash. I at least had the passport to get an emergency Western Union transfer of cash. Guests at a sidewalk cafe actually gave me enough Euros to get a taxi back to the hotel. One bad apple is not a reflection on the great people of Italy!

I do carry my passport when I leave the city I am staying in ... but I don't wear a dress (pretty hard to stick your passport in a belt under your clothes if you are wearing a dress), and I use a flat belt/pouch to keep the passport. I keep my phone on a phone tether around my neck and tucked into my shirt, and I keep my drivers license, one credit card and enough cash for the day in the case behind the phone. The phone is handy enough to use for taking pictures or sending messages, but its not tempting anyone to grab it. If your phone is secured, it is a great place to keep your credit card & cash. You simply slide the case off and retrieve what you need when shopping, in a place where you aren't observed in the middle of a crowd.

Catherine

A backpack is never a secure place to carry anything of value. A money belt is the most secure place because it's worn under your clothing and no one knows you're wearing it.

I always carry my passport because there are too many things going on it the world. I've been stopped a few times in Rome and asked to produce it.

Donna

We do leave our original passports in the hotel safe and carry copies unless we're changing cities. I'm aware of the law but so far that has worked for us, and I'll cheerfully walk the authorities to our hotel should they ever need to inspect our originals. So far, we've never been asked to show them with the exception of buying the Amici degli Uffizi pass - which we knew about in advance.

As an Italian, I am required to bring my ID card with me all the time, I do and I never had it stolen.

Only a small correction: if you do not have your passport with you but your identity can be verified in a reasonable time, you probably do not risk anything really serious. But do not expect to jollily walk the authorities to your hotel; it is more probable that you will be grudgingly walked to a nearby police station where you will wait while the phone the hotel and check for records.

Fair enough, asps. My comment was tongue-in-cheek. Still, our original passports are valuable enough to us personally to keep under lock and key unless changing locations. If we ever run into a situation where we're asked for them on the street (and are SURE the persons asking are really 'authorities'), should they make a fuss about paper copies and driver's licenses as ID then maybe we'll start carrying them all the time.

Of course you can carry a money belt under your dress because money belts are not wallets, they are body safes. They should never be accessed in public.

We had business at the US Embassy in Paris not long ago and were surrounded in the waiting room by nervous sometimes panicked tourists who had lost passports; some of them were missing flights home or onward and all were wasting a day or two of their limited time dealing with this.

We always leave the passport in a secure place i.e. apartment or hotel safe or in transit carry it in a secure money belt under our clothes. If I need to produce a passport to police, then having to fetch it from the hotel will be the least of my worries. Police do not stomp around demanding 'papers' like some grade B movie. In 55 years of European travel I have only been asked for the passport at border entry, banking, buying phones or sim cards and checking into hotels. For any other purpose, a photo copy has been fine including in stores when getting VAT paperwork.

You should. If you are ever stopped for any reason, you will need it. Even Italians always carry their ID with them. I wear mine on my body in a money belt.

HATE moneybelts: we never wear them, and use other methods to keep our passports and other valuables secure when changing countries/cities. Those have worked well for us so until proven wrong, we'll continue to do what's a lot more comfortable for us. It's a personal choice, I know, but based on our own experiences.

In my opinion, this is a matter of personal preference when you're in many European countries.
I don't carry my passport with me for walking around during the day in most European countries, especially if there is a safe in the room where I can put it.
In Italy I might keep it on me, since it's (apparently) the law, technically.
If there's not a safe in the room, I could in theory ask the hotel to put it in their big safe at registration, but I don't do that, I just put it in my money belt. I just don't like having something that thick in my money belt.

But if I'm driving, I have it because of the possibility of police stops, random or otherwise.

There have been only a few stories here, over the years, of people not driving (just walking around) who have been asked for their passport, or punished for not having it.

I got a passport card with my passport. I can take my passport card like a driver license and will work.

Zapo .... How do you know it will work? Have you tried it yet?

Zapo, I agree with Norma. A Driving Licence is not a recognised ID. And if it is from outside the EU, a policeman would not be familiar with it and could not tell if it is genuine or something you printed off on your computer.
Ditto a "passport card" (whatever that is). The only internationally recognised travel document is a passport, and that is the only thing the Polizia would accept from a non-EU/Schengen citizen, in the admittedly unlikely event of you getting stopped by the police.