The Notary is a public official who draws up deeds concerning sales, exchanges, divisions, mortgages, but also last will, that is, wills, attributing to these public documents faith. The deed drawn up by the notary is a public act, has a particular legal effect: what the notary attests becomes full proof, that is to say it must be considered true, even by the judge, except in the conditions in which the crime of forgery is ascertained.

The law prescribes the notarial deed for acts and contracts in which there is a need to guarantee the highest degree of legality and certainty, such as sales, divisions, mortgages, real estate contracts, company deeds and amendments to social statutes, transfers of companies and social participations, constitutions of foundations and associations wishing to obtain legal personality for their economic-social content or for their complexity.

Another task of the notary is to listen and analyze the needs of customers by informing them of their rights and duties and the consequences of the requested service, proposing the choice of the most appropriate type of negotiation to customer decisions, giving all the clarifications required or deemed useful.

Finally, the notary takes care of the fulfillment of the law following the signing of the notarial deed such as registration with the Revenue Agency, the registration with the Land Agency, the registration in the Register of Companies, the annotations in the Registry of civil status .

There are some fundamental characteristics of the role of the notary, the first concerns trust, which is based on impartiality, in fact all parts of the contract are protected, on a high-level legal and tax preparation and on its nature as a public official, that it guarantees the truthfulness and legality of the acts.

To gain access to the notary profession it is necessary to obtain a specialist degree in Law, to do 18 months of practicum with a qualified notary, of which at least one year continuously after graduation.

After that it is necessary to pass the notary contest that takes place in Rome, a single national headquarters.

Admission to the notary competition is limited to persons under the age of fifty, who have already been rejected in the three previous competitions. The written exam covers three distinct theoretical-practical tests, candidates who pass this first part are admitted to the oral exam.

The law establishes the principle of territoriality of notarial competence, thus allowing the notary to exercise his ministry only within the District of assignment.

The notarial activity is carried out as a free profession, therefore the notary exercises in full autonomy, but its exercise is subject to the provisions of the law and the Code of Conduct.

In his activity the notary is required to strictly respect professional secrecy.