The Best VPNs for Italy

When we connected to ExpressVPN’s Italy servers, we were able to unblock every major Italian website and streaming platform. This includes RaiPlay, DAZN Italy, Mediaset Infinity, La7, Sky Italia, and Netflix Italy.

You can see how easily we unblocked RaiPlay using ExpressVPN in the short video below:

Thanks to ExpressVPN, we watched geo-blocked shows like Uomini e Donne, MasterChef Italia and L’Isola dei Famosi from outside Italy.

The only slight downside was that we did occasionally experience slow loading times, particularly with RaiPlay. We’ve seen this with many VPNs, though.

We enjoy using ExpressVPN especially for its well-designed and user-friendly apps for most devices, including Fire TV Stick and Apple TV.

There’s also a rare router app available, which allows you to use ExpressVPN on your home router and unblock Italian content on devices like Roku, PlayStation and Xbox.

ExpressVPN unblocked all Italian streaming sites in our tests, including MediaSet Infinity.

ExpressVPN offers Italian IP addresses for Cosenza, Naples, and Milan, covering both the North and South of the country.

Having 3 Italian city options is an excellent geographical spread, and a big improvement on most other VPNs that often limit their server coverage to just Milan.

ExpressVPN has IP addresses in Cosenza, Naples & Milan.

All server locations were extremely quick to connect to, and registered very fast connection speeds.

Connecting from abroad, we recorded an average download speed of 85Mbps, which was similar to PIA’s 86Mbps and faster than Proton VPN’s 84Mbps.

Depending on where you’re connecting from, select the Italian server location closest to you for marginally higher speeds.

During our tests, the occasional CAPTCHAs raised doubts about server quantity, as these can occur when servers are overloaded. Speeds were unaffected, but CAPTCHAs are a slight nuisance.

ExpressVPN’s apps are the most intuitive we’ve used and as a result, the VPN provider scored 9.9/10 in our ease-of-use assessment.

The simple functionality and design consistency across devices is currently unrivaled. Many of the VPN’s app interfaces are the same across platforms, unlike other VPNs, which makes switching from one device to another seamless.

We can see that special attention has been given to the product’s usability and design, to make the VPN particularly accessible to beginners.

Proton VPN is particularly good for watching Netflix Italy from abroad thanks to seamless, buffer-free connections.

In our latest tests, the VPN started streaming Italian geo-restricted content just as quickly as ExpressVPN. This was most evident with RaiPlay.

In the video below, you can see us stream movies exclusively available on Netflix Italy using Proton VPN’s automatic Italy server. We bypassed Netflix’s geo-restrictions without a hitch and instantly unblocked content:

Proton VPN delivers the same high level of streaming performance with RaiPlay, Mediaset Infinity, La7, and other Italian streaming services.

However, unlike ExpressVPN, it doesn’t unblock DAZN Italy. If watching Italian sports from abroad is your priority, ExpressVPN is the superior choice.

Proton VPN runs 48 VPN servers in Milan. It’s less than half of what PIA offers, and a third of the city-level options available with ExpressVPN.

Despite these shortcomings, it’s still a good quantity of servers and VPN connections showed no sign of being affected by server congestion.

Proton VPN’s Italian servers display their percentage loads.

In terms of speed, Proton VPN is slower than ExpressVPN, scoring 8.6/10 in our tests. Nevertheless, it’s still a fast VPN averaging 84Mbps connecting into Italy.

Proton VPN has developed well-made apps for Android TV, Chromecast with Google TV, and Fire TV, so you can stream Italian shows on large screen devices.

We tested the VPN on all these devices connecting to the Milan server, with no unexpected surprises to either speed or unblocking performance.

All these apps are intuitive and rather well-designed, despite having a roster of advanced features that may intimidate you if you’re new to VPNs.

Where Proton VPN falls sort of ExpressVPN is device compatibility. For instance, there is no Apple TV app, or router app, which makes using Proton VPN less straightforward on certain devices.

At least, Proton VPN is slightly cheaper than ExpressVPN, with its two-year plan costing $4.99 per month. This is still on the pricier end of the spectrum, though.

Private Internet Access has more Italian servers than any other VPN. Its network includes 87 servers in Milan and Rome.

Similarly to ExpressVPN, the VPN server spread is more balanced, and doesn’t favor Northern Italy like many other VPNs do.

PIA’s Italian streaming server disappoints.

PIA’s connections to both Italy server locations were stable throughout months of testing, with speeds equal to ExpressVPN and faster than Proton VPN.

Despite having a server optimized for Italian streaming, PIA doesn’t unblock RaiPlay, Sky Go or Mediaset Infinity outside of Italy.

We were only able to unblock La7, which has the easiest geo-blocks to bypass. This is disappointing, and prevents PIA from ranking higher in our recommendations list for Italy.

PIA was blocked by Mediaset Infinity & RaiPlay in our Italian streaming tests.

There is also no dedicated router app, unlike ExpressVPN, and installing the VPN on our router wasn’t straightforward, unfortunately.

TunnelBear Free offers a free Italian server that allows you to get an Italian IP address based in Milan. This means you can access Italian websites from anywhere for free. You can do this via the TunnelBear VPN app or its free browser extension for Chrome and Firefox.

TunnelBear has a free server based in Milan, available via its apps and browser extensions.

TunnelBear Free is ideal for light browsing of Italian websites, with well-designed apps that are friendly to VPN beginners. It has a fun and colorful interface and its features are easy to use.

TunnelBear imposes one of the harshest data caps of any free VPN, permitting only 2GB of data per month. This is highly restrictive and prevents uninterrupted streaming or file sharing.

It’s also abandoned the practice of allowing your free data to accumulate if it goes unused. Previously we enjoyed using TunnelBear Free after letting the free data pile up. This is no longer possible.

Unfortunately, TunnelBear Free is not a good free VPN for Italian TV or Italian Netflix. It cannot access Netflix Italy, Mediaset Infinity, or RaiPlay outside Italy. However, TunnelBear Free did stream La7 in our tests.

We tried to stream ‘Zio Gianni’ on RaiPlay using TunnelBear Free, but the VPN was detected.

Though it’s not good for streaming, TunnelBear Free is fast for a free VPN. Its average speed for long-distance connections is 85Mbps, making for smooth US to Italy speeds — only 15% slower than your normal internet connection.