Passport expiration

You need three months validity after exiting the country. Allow time to renew your passport before you go.

My mom was flying out of JFK to fly to Spain at the end of December. Her passport was to expire at the end of January. She was only going to be in Spain for two weeks. She was not allowed to board her flight in New York and was stuck there until she renewed her passport. If I were you, I would error on the side of caution and renew before you go.

You need to be more precise on your dates. On the date you enter Italy, a Schengen Treaty signer, you can stay 90 days maximum. So there must be at least 91 days left of passport validity, since they obviously don't want your passport expiring before your maximum legal stay. Lets say you were leaving on September 9 and your passport expired on December 3. In that case they would not let you board.
As a matter of course, I always renew when I have 6 months of validity left. Lately, it has only taken 3 weeks with normal processing. You can always pay up for expedited processing.

http://www.uspassporthelpguide.com/six-months-validity-rule/

The website above shows all the countries that require you 6 months validity rule, Italy isn't listed, but I've always heard the general rule is your passport should be valid 6 months before expiration.

I wouldn't risk it. You have plenty of time to renew, so go ahead and do it and take that off your "worry list."

Yes, you should get new ones to be sure.
The negative consequences of not renewing now could literally ruin your trip, it's just not worth it.

You'll need to renew it anyway so I'd just do it now and be done with it. You need it to be valid for 3 months in order to visit Italy.

Donna

Thanks everyone for your time and input. Happy travels.

Ugh - I wish I could remember which site I read this on, but some woman flew from the US to Europe - the airline let her get on the plane and fly to Europe, but on the next leg, they wouldn't let her catch her connecting because her passport was a few months from expiry. She eventually got it sorted out, but with much hassle. I thought it was on the Boarding Area website, where Chris Elliot helps out people who are having issues with refunds and whatnot (but I couldn't find that story)...even if you check out that sight and search passports, you will see a few horror stories. Better to be safe than sorry!

Get new passports now. If it expires in less than 6 months there are several countries that won't let you in.
I just got a new one and the turnaround time was 4 weeks and cost $110.
You don't want to have to worry about it while you are traveling, you're going to have to get new ones soon anyway, so take care of it while you have enough time.