5 Best VPNs for Italy: Fast Streaming & Italian IP Address (2026)

NordVPN – 170+ Italian Servers & 7,000+ Global Servers for Fast Unblocking

You get 170+ Italian servers with NordVPN to unblock local content like RAI tv, VVVVID, and other Italian services from the country or abroad. When I checked its server list in September 2026, it showed 178 of them across three cities: Milan (114), Rome (52), and Palermo (12).

That’s more Italian cities than any other provider on this list, and it fixes the one complaint I used to have here, back when every NordVPN server in Italy sat in Milan. Gamers in the south and in Sicily can now pick Rome or Palermo for a lower ping, while Milan still carries most of the capacity.

Beyond Italy, NordVPN uses 7,000+ servers in 150 countries to access content, bypass geo-restrictions, and unblock almost anything anywhere.

That’s the widest country reach on this list, and more servers than Surfshark runs.

In other words, you’ll stand a lesser chance of overcrowding on NordVPN’s servers, and you can unblock content in more countries than with any other VPN listed.

Fortunately, NordVPN has servers in most regions where I’ve had to unblock content.

Thus, it was easy to:

• Stream Hulu and Amazon Prime US on the US servers
• Watch NRK TV on its Norway servers
• Get France TV streams over its French servers
• Bypass BBC iPlayer restrictions to stream it outside the UK
• Watch Japanese Netflix, US Netflix, Australian Netflix, and other Netflix libraries anywhere

Since I was server-hopping a lot and streaming content, I was happy that NordVPN didn’t lag or cause buffering like some VPNs I discarded during my tests. So, I tested it for speed, and it managed 34Mbps on my 45Mbps connection.

Little wonder I was able to crank my content streams up to 4K over NordVPN with zero issues! Connect via the NordLynx protocol to get similarly fast speeds and reliable security.

Knowing that some torrent sites like The Pirate Bay, 1337x, and TorrentHound have been blocked by Vodafone, Telecom Italia, and other Italian ISPs, I connected to a regular NordVPN server to unblock access.

NordVPN allows P2P traffic on all its standard servers, so any server you pick will do, and my torrent downloads ran faster and more securely without ISP throttling!

I mentioned encryption up there. Lest I forget, I tested NordVPN’s encryption over a few servers during my tests, and it never leaked my IP/DNS requests. Even when the VPN connection dropped while switching from Wi-Fi to a mobile network, NordVPN’s kill switch terminated my internet connection to prevent leaks.

That way, the government, my ISP, or anyone else snooping around my network won’t find my IP address. Thus, they can’t deanonymize my internet activity over the VPN-assigned IP address I was using.

Finally, I’m glad that NordVPN is based in Panama. This region is neither in the 14 Eyes Alliance like Italy, nor has any data-sharing arrangements with Italy/any government. In fact, it’s a friendly location for data and user privacy.

NordVPN builds on that with its audited no-logs policy.

Thus, it doesn’t collect any data about what you do on its servers and can’t share that information with Italian authorities if they ask.

Sounds like the kind of VPN you like? You can enjoy your NordVPN plan with your family on ten connected devices, and Threat Protection stops malicious sites and trackers on Italy’s public Wi-Fi.

And NordVPN isn’t expensive either. Grab these NordVPN deals while they last and get a 30-day money-back guarantee.

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Surfshark – Enjoy Italian Servers & 4500+ Global Servers on Unlimited Devices

Surfshark is my runner-up for Italy: it covers the Italian basics, then blows the rest out of the water with unlimited simultaneous connections.

But before we get to that, it runs servers in two Italian cities, Milan and Rome, like CyberGhost (see how it compares with NordVPN, which adds Palermo). Surfshark’s server page still listed both cities in September 2026.

However, Surfshark doesn’t manage the server volume CyberGhost packs in this region. Fortunately, that doesn’t impact its ability to unblock Italian-only services like Lombardia TV, Rai TV, and TeleUniverso.

But there’s a minor problem I noticed when using Surfshark.

Unlike NordVPN, Surfshark doesn’t have an in-house alternative to WireGuard for faster speeds and balanced security. Even so, connecting to some servers over WireGuard on my Windows PC was usually challenging.

So, I leave the protocol setting at automatic, over which I usually get the OpenVPN (UDP) protocol. You may have to try multiple times before the system automatically picks WireGuard. That may be less than ideal when you need faster speeds.

Surprisingly, I got the fastest VPN speeds from Surfshark.

I tested the VPN once I lucked into a WireGuard connection and got 39Mbps on the 45Mbps connection.

But it’s better to choose the slightly lesser but reliable 33Mbps speeds from NordVPN, which guarantees NordLynx every time you want it.

If you’re willing to look past that until Surfshark finds a fix, know that it reaches 100 countries (4,500+ servers), so there’s almost nothing you can’t unblock or access from any corner of the web. So much so that I’ve used Surfshark to:

• Access IbakaTV and Iroko TV over Nigerian servers
• Stream Kazakh TV news like I was in Kazakhstan
• Enjoy BBC iPlayer outside the UK
• Get Crave TV content like I’m in Canada
• Followed up on my Indian musicals on Voot from anywhere

Thus, this VPN already shines on IP/DNS security, speed, and reliable unblocking. So, I tested it for torrenting and quickly noticed that there aren’t any unique P2P or torrenting servers in the Surfshark app.

So, I asked the customer care staff and got some of the P2P locations on Surfshark. Good, but I’ll prefer not to ask, which would have been possible if it indicated the P2P servers in-app.

Thankfully, I had a satisfactory experience downloading torrents over Surfshark. It maintained its speed, prevented my ISP from throttling me at points, and unblocked The Pirate Bay, my favorite torrent website.

You’ll also appreciate that Surfshark has an audited no-logs policy, verified by Deloitte in 2023 and again in 2025. This makes it easier to trust Surfshark since it’s based in the Netherlands, another 14 Eyes country like Italy, which should have made it harder to trust otherwise.

Now, to the best part:

Surfshark beats every other listed provider hands down with its unlimited simultaneous connections offer. You don’t have to worry about conserving slots, and it brings unlimited bandwidth on top of that.

It’s also one of the cheapest providers I reviewed here.

So, it doesn’t hike its price for those unreal unlimited connections.

NordVPN still edges it for Italy on local reach (three cities to Surfshark’s two) and on reliability, since NordLynx connected every time while I had to fight for WireGuard here. If you do pick Surfshark, switch on CleanWeb and the kill switch before you join an Italian café or train Wi-Fi network.

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PrivateVPN – Milan Server, Static IP & Port Forwarding on a Budget

PrivateVPN keeps one Italian location on its server list: Milan. That’s one city to NordVPN’s three and Surfshark’s two, and I’d rather say so upfront, because PrivateVPN earns its place here with what comes attached to that server, not with coverage.

First, the Milan server, like all of PrivateVPN’s locations, hands you a shared static IP. Whether you connect to Milan on Monday or a month later, the address stays the same, so your Banco BPM login or RAI account doesn’t flag a string of new IPs while you’re abroad. On some locations you can also get a dynamic dedicated IP over OpenVPN, meaning no other customer shares it during your session.

Second, torrenting. The Pirate Bay has been unreachable from Italy since 2009, and PrivateVPN allows P2P traffic plus port forwarding on selected locations at no extra charge, a seeding feature Surfshark doesn’t offer and NordVPN only sells with its paid Dedicated Server add-on. My PrivateVPN torrenting guide covers the client setup.

Streaming is where I’m more cautious. The Netflix libraries PrivateVPN itself advertises are the US, UK, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Australia, and Sweden, with no mention of Italy, and I didn’t put its Milan server through the RAI TV test the others passed. For Italian TV from abroad, NordVPN and Surfshark are the proven options; see my PrivateVPN Netflix guide for the libraries it does handle.

For security, you get WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2, a system-wide kill switch in every app (Linux setups included), and Stealth VPN for school or office networks that block VPN traffic outright.

PrivateVPN’s home is Sweden, which sits in the 14 Eyes alongside Italy, and nobody outside the company has audited its zero-logs claim, while the other four here have been through such audits. On a page about Italian data retention, that’s worth weighing.

My Italy speed runs predate its addition, so there’s no PrivateVPN figure to set beside the others. Ten devices share one subscription, and at $2.00 a month for the first 36 months (then $72 yearly), it’s the lowest price on this list.

Check these PrivateVPN offers to lock in that Milan IP, with 30 days to change your mind and get a refund.

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CyberGhost – 170+ Servers in Two Italian Cities & Torrent-Optimized Servers

CyberGhost matches NordVPN’s Italian server count, with 178 of these in its library. It also excels in providing these servers in multiple cities: Milan and Rome.

Now, that’s one city fewer than NordVPN’s three, but it’s on par with the city count you get from Surfshark and ExpressVPN.

Fortunately, the servers aren’t just there to make up the numbers but are reliably encrypted and capable of unblocking content.

To establish these, I tested the encryption first and got zero IP/DNS leaks on its Italian and other servers.

Next up, I streamed Lombardia TV live for a while and got clear pictures without lag or buffering.

Tinkering around the CyberGhost app reveals that the provider offers special servers for streaming, torrenting, and gaming. So, I connected to one optimized for Rai Play to stream Lombardia TV seamlessly.

This tells you that you can connect to any streaming server to stream content it may not even be optimized for. That’s how capable and well-engineered all CyberGhost’s servers are.

In the same breath, I should mention CyberGhost’s massive haul of 9000+ servers in 100 countries. Thus, it boasts the largest server count, and its Italian count ties NordVPN’s for the largest I recorded! Only NordVPN and ExpressVPN cover more countries, and Surfshark matches it.

Thus, it was possible to unblock content in every region I tried. If you’re an expat in Italy, compare CyberGhost against NordVPN to know which offers local servers in your country.

So, whether you’re a fan of Hulu and Amazon Prime (US servers), love the BBC iPlayer content (UK), or get the most fun from France TV (France), CyberGhost has you covered.

That said, it needs no telling that CyberGhost supports torrent downloads. After all, that’s what the boldly-advertised torrenting servers are for.

It’s extra surprising that it even has a torrent-optimized server in Italy.

Thanks to the encryption I tested above, connecting to this Italian server keeps the Italian government or your ISP in the dark regarding what sites you’ve accessed/files you downloaded.

Perhaps the most impressive part of CyberGhost is its speed, scoring 37Mbps. This makes it the second-fastest VPN provider, just behind Surfshark.

But this won’t give you more than 4K streams, even though it’s a lesser speed drop than NordVPN managed. So, they’re equal here.

Moving on, CyberGhost has also been recently audited for its no-logs claims and is based in Romania. While Romania is a part of the EU with Italy, neither is in any data-sharing arrangements. Plus, Romania is known to reject invasive data collection and retention laws by the EU.

CyberGhost is priced lower than NordVPN, too, though its seven simultaneous device connections trail NordVPN’s ten. What drops it to fourth is the Italian edge it used to hold: when NordVPN kept every Italian server in Milan, CyberGhost’s Rome location gave it an edge over my top pick, and now NordVPN covers Rome and Palermo as well.

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ExpressVPN – Fast Obfuscation + Torrent Download & Seeding Across 113 Countries

ExpressVPN follows Surfshark and CyberGhost by offering two Italian server locations. While it retained the famous Milan IP address, it also adds a never-before-seen Cosenza server.

One of the reasons that ExpressVPN is further down the list is for its lesser servers in Italy, but it has an ace up its sleeves to make that matter less.

More on this later.

For now, I focused on the unblocking capacity of these Italian servers, over which I watched Lonely Hearts live to the end on Lira TV.

Kudos to ExpressVPN for never dropping my connection or inducing lags in my streaming. After that test, I also unblocked Netflix Italy to watch some Italian cooking documentaries.

Only then did I test for speed, finding that ExpressVPN manages about 35Mbps on the 45Mbps connection. Let me tell you why that’s impressive.

ExpressVPN uses automatic obfuscation on all its servers and protocols.

Thus, it hides your VPN traffic to look like regular traffic once you connect to the VPN. That makes it impossible for Vodafone, Sky Italia, and other ISPs to set up VPN traffic blocks or firewalls against you.

But what makes ExpressVPN’s offering special is that obfuscation should significantly affect internet speeds. Still, it manages to be faster than NordVPN and comes dangerously close to Surfshark, even with that obfuscation enabled!

ExpressVPN no longer publishes how many servers it runs, but they cover 113 countries.

That country count is second only to NordVPN’s, and since every server comes with fast obfuscation, the network is worth a lot.

I took some of ExpressVPN’s global servers for a spin and got the following:

• BBC iPlayer on the UK – Manchester server
• Netflix US, Hulu, Amazon Prime US, and CNN Go on the US – New York server
• Voot on India (via UK) server

I kept throwing any free and paid streaming platform I could find at ExpressVPN, and it was unblocking buffer-less streams on them all.

Impressive!

For such a fast VPN with top-level obfuscation, it’s no surprise that ExpressVPN supports torrent downloads too. But, like Surfshark, it doesn’t mention its P2P-optimized servers.

Interestingly, the support staff I contacted told me that all ExpressVPN’s servers are P2P-ready and optimized.

As if that’s not enough, ExpressVPN supports torrent seeding.

That’s thanks to its port forwarding feature, which is limited to the router app alone.

PrivateVPN is the only other provider here that includes port forwarding in its regular plans, on selected locations (NordVPN only offers it with a paid Dedicated Server add-on).

ExpressVPN continues to impress with several independent no-logs audits to prove it doesn’t collect data about your online activities.

Furthermore, it’s based in the privacy-friendly British Virgin Islands.

Sadly, ExpressVPN costs more than the budget picks here, while PrivateVPN is the cheapest.

Its Basic plan does now cover ten simultaneous connections, level with NordVPN and PrivateVPN.

But you shouldn’t write ExpressVPN off, especially if it meets your needs the best.

So, grab these ExpressVPN deals to save more and get a 30-day money-back guarantee.

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