Diving in Italy: the dive logbook the law asks for

Law 7 May 2026, no. 70 — in force since 10 May 2026 · page updated 29 August 2026

This page is not legal advice. It reads the text of the law and links to the official gazette at the bottom so you can read it yourself. It does not replace the opinion of a lawyer, which is what a concrete situation calls for.

In short. If you dive recreationally in Italian waters, since 10 May 2026 you are expected to carry a certification card and a dive logbook. The entries the law lists are thirteen, not fifteen. The text expressly allows a digital logbook. There is no official template. The fine runs from 500 to 1,500 euro.

Two laws, and one of them is not this one

Italy passed two diving laws in 2026, and they are easy to mix up. Law 26 January 2026, no. 9 covers professional and industrial diving: article 1(2) expressly excludes «tourist-recreational activities and those carried out for sporting purposes». It is the one that got the most attention, and it is not the one that concerns a recreational diver.

The one that does is law 7 May 2026, no. 70, «Valorizzazione della risorsa mare», published in the official gazette no. 106 of 9 May 2026 and in force since 10 May 2026. Its Chapter III (articles 8 to 15) governs recreational diving, and its duties apply directly — they do not wait for implementing decrees.

Thirteen entries, not fifteen

Article 12(8) requires the diver to hold a certification card «as well as a dive logbook, in which the following must be recorded, including in digital form». That last phrase is in the statute itself, not a tolerated practice: an app or a file counts as much as a paper booklet.

The entries are lettered a) to o), and English-speaking readers regularly count fifteen of them. They are thirteen: Italian legal drafting skips j and k, so the sequence runs a) to i), then l), m), n), o).

a) the diver's personal details
b) type of certification held
c) date of the dive
d) location of the dive
e) start time
f) end time
g) type of breathing apparatus used
h) breathing mix used
i) planned maximum depth
l) maximum depth reached
m) name of the dive centre
n) personal details of the instructor or guide
o) signature of the person named under n)

Note that i) and l) are two different depths — the one you planned and the one you reached. There is no official template: the thirteen entries are the only constraint on form, and nothing has to be bought or stamped. As for o), the law says «signature» and nothing more — not «qualified electronic signature». A mark left on a screen, kept with the name and the date, meets the text as well as ink does.

What the law does not say

On a new rule, the gaps matter as much as the text. Chapter III contains none of the following.

Nothing about dive computers, software or decompression algorithms — no approval regime, no technical requirement. The only technological references are permissive.
No duty to transmit data to any authority or national register. The duty is passive: keep the logbook and show it if asked.
No national roll of divers, instructors or guides.
No depth limit set by law — your certification sets it — and nothing about minors.
No medical certificate required of the diving customer; that is asked of instructors and guides.

Diving without a centre: an open question

Article 12(8) sits inside article 12, which governs dive centres, and three of the thirteen entries — the centre, the guide, the guide's signature — assume a centre and a guide exist. Article 10(3) does bring private dives under Chapter III as well.

Whether the logbook duty also binds someone diving alone or with friends, with no centre, is not settled by the text, and no established practice or case law resolves it. Anyone stating it firmly either way is interpreting, not quoting.

Fines

Article 15 sets administrative fines. Breaching the certification and logbook duty of article 12(8) carries 500 to 1,500 euro, and it falls on the diver. Dive centres failing their own recording duties face 1,000 to 3,000 euro. Which authority actually issues the fine is left to each Region to designate, so practical enforcement is still unsettled.

Keeping the logbook with MyDiveLog

MyDiveLog is the free, open-source dive logbook this site is about. It holds every field article 12(8) of law 70/2026 lists — all thirteen letters, the guide's signature included, signed with a finger on the screen — and exports them to PDF, one page per dive, from the Mac and from the iPhone. Missing data stays a dash: planned depth never becomes the depth reached, and nothing is mandatory inside the app.

MyDiveLog makes no claim to be «compliant», and this page makes none on its behalf. An application can hold the fields the rule lists; compliance belongs to whoever fills the logbook in. And the question above stands: whether the duty reaches divers going out on their own is not answered by the text.