Italian Tourist Guide Exam 2026: Passing the Oral and Practical Test

There is a moment you never forget: when the word PASSED appears next to your name. You have cleared the written test of the Italian tourist guide exam. You breathe out. Then a colder thought arrives: and now the oral? And the practical test?

I am writing this on July 5, 2026, while the first oral and technical-practical sessions of the MITUR national tourist guide exam have been running for just over ten days. In the Italian study group I’m part of — over 120 colleagues, many of whom have surnames starting with L or M and received their date with only a few days’ notice — the mood is clear. Anxiety, confusion about technical procedures, worries that the newly-appointed sub-commissions “may not have had time to prepare”. Colleagues organising Saturday visits to the Domus Aurea to see the site live, others reporting they had to bring their PC to service the day before because “it randomly shuts down”. Parallel groups popping up: Emilia-Romagna, Catania, Rome, “Future Guides — Oral Tests”. Everyone exchanging notes, PDFs, “fives” (site-groups) leftover from the old format, forms to fill in for auditors.

I write this after reading hundreds of these messages, after re-reading the official notice article by article, after cross-checking the sources of the Italian Ministry of Tourism, Formez PA and the Sole 24 Ore reports. The oral and technical-practical stages of the Italian tourist guide exam 2026 are not “the written test out loud”. They are a different game, with different rules. But they are not impossible. Most people who stop here don’t stop because they don’t know things — they stop because they can’t say them, in front of a panel, on a destination drawn at random, without a safety net. That is what I have been working on for months, and that is exactly what the Manual I just published is built around — you’ll find the full details towards the end of this article, no fluff.

📊 The real numbers: where the bar is and who has already passed

Let’s start from official facts, ones the Italian Ministry of Tourism has published with verifiable dates and press releases.

June 8, 2026 — MITUR press release: 8,346 candidates showed up for the written test on June 5 (out of about 17,000 registrants). Of those, 7,844 were deemed eligible: 94% of those present. Il Sole 24 Ore titled it with the sharpest possible formula — “written test, almost everyone passed” — and the implicit reading is worth spelling out: whoever cleared the written test cleared the toughest hurdle of the entire path. The same reports referring to the first 2025 exam confirm this: out of about 12,000 written-test participants, only 230 had been eligible (1.8%), later reduced to 222 total certifications after orals and practicals. Bluntly: in 2025 the oral failure rate was close to zero — whoever made it to the oral, got certified. Il Sole 24 Ore, on May 14, 2026, wrote it verbatim: almost all candidates who reached the oral interview and practical test had obtained the certification.

June 30, 2026 — InPA portal update: the Ministry published the “List of certified candidates” for the sessions from June 23 to June 26, 2026, followed by an errata corrige published the same day at 16:53. These are the first national certifications of this round: their names appear in the Formez Concorsi Smart reserved area and in the InPA notice. I’m not quoting the exact number here as a matter of honesty — the official PDF is not publicly indexed and I don’t want to report figures I haven’t read directly on the document — but the signal that matters is this: the process has started, it works, it is producing official certifications. If you sat the exam on June 23-26, you can check your personal result by logging in with SPID to Formez Concorsi Smart.

🔄 What changed since 2025 (and why the old “fives” no longer apply)

In the study group there’s a shared file called “300 ORAL FIVES”: it’s a leftover from the old format, from the 2025 exam, where the candidate would draw an envelope with five sites and pick one. 2026 doesn’t work that way anymore. The exam programme — Annex 3 to the notice published on April 29, 2026, approved by the Commission with verbale n. 1 of May 20 — has a clean structure:

• Section I — 124 cultural, artistic, archaeological and landscape sites across the 20 Italian regions
• Section II — 24 national reference museums
• Section III — 40 destinations on which the technical-practical test takes place exclusively; the list is public at least 15 days before the oral sessions (art. 8.3 of the notice)
• Section IV — Legislation: Cultural Heritage Code (D.Lgs. 42/2004), Tourism Code (D.Lgs. 79/2011), Law 190/2023, accessibility and inclusivity

The oral test covers Sections I, II and IV. The technical-practical test covers Section III only. On exam day the destination is not one you pick out of five: you draw one single destination out of the 40 in Annex 3 — on that one, you need to be ready to simulate a guided tour in Italian and in the chosen foreign language.

The main Examining Commission was appointed by Directorial Decree n. 76879 of May 19, 2026, signed by MITUR Director General Francesco Felici; the composition with permanent members (Anna Maria Romano, Valentina Erminia Albanese, Domenico Benoci, Luana Spadano, Serena Serravalle) and substitutes is reported by third-party sources (Concorsando.it) based on the published decree — I have not read the decree PDF directly and I invite you to verify on the InPA documents if you need the full list. With a subsequent decree of June 19, 2026, 12 sub-commissions were established, each with three permanent members plus substitutes, applying the criteria and grading grids approved by the main Commission. That’s why some in the study group worry about the sub-commissions’ “short preparation time”: the appointment is recent, but the set of rules they follow is detailed and formalised in Annexes 4 and 5a-5d of the notice. They don’t improvise — they apply a fixed 40-point grid.

🎙️ How the oral test actually works (art. 7 of the notice)

The oral test is an interview in Italian on Sections I, II and IV of the exam programme, complemented by the verification of the chosen foreign language at minimum CEFR B2 level (with exemption per art. 4 of Law 190/2023 only for those who obtained a degree or diploma in a foreign language at a foreign institution — a private B2 certificate is not enough). It takes place via online proctoring, sessions starting at 09:00, and the panel’s evaluation is unanimous, on a 40-point scale. Passing threshold: 25/40.

The grid (Annex 5a-5b) is public and tells you exactly where the points are. For the candidate subject to the language verification:

• Knowledge and depth of the disciplines: 0-15 points
• Communication ability, exposition, logical development: 0-14 points
• Aptitude for the profession: 0-5 points
• Foreign language proficiency: 0-6 points

For candidates exempted from the language verification, the six points are redistributed (17+16+7). Note the second item: 14 out of 40 points are communication ability. This is not a university viva. It’s a test that assesses how you say things, not just what you know. And this is exactly where, last year, many well-prepared candidates left points on the table.

🗺️ The technical-practical test: 8-12 minutes to reach 25/40

Whoever passes the oral is admitted, on the same day and in immediate succession (art. 8.1), to the technical-practical test. It’s a simulation of a guided tour in Italian and in the chosen foreign language (art. 8.2). The destination is one — drawn at random from the 40 in Section III (art. 8.3). The score is again on a 40-point scale, threshold 25/40, unanimous evaluation. The grid (Annex 5c-5d) assesses four criteria: quality of exposition, accuracy of information, conduction ability, linguistic adequacy.

The actual duration of the simulation — based on testimonies from previous sessions reported by Simone Concorsi, with the caveat that the 2026 format has changed from 2025 — is around 8-12 minutes total (Italian + foreign language). You don’t need academic depth: you need a structured path, with a clear opening, three to four stops each with a distinctive element, and a memorable closing summary. The “good approach”, in past sessions, was to treat the Commission as if it were an actual group of tourists in front of you: engaging but professional tone, practical hints, food or logistics tips connected to the site.

Foreign language in the practical — a point worth clarifying. From those same past testimonies, candidates have some freedom: you can continue the exposition started in Italian and switch to the chosen language, or restart with a shorter version directly in the foreign language. The recurring practical tip is to prepare a brief speech in the foreign language by heart, rather than translating the scheme word-for-word — literal translation creates small gaps on specific terms and generates hesitation, a prepared speech flows. The required level remains CEFR B2, not native.

💻 The telematic setup: what you really need (source: InPA instructions of June 19, 2026)

The updated operational instructions were published on the InPA portal on June 19, 2026 at 20:52 (PDF “Updated notice and instructions to candidates ORAL AND TECHNICAL-PRACTICAL TEST”). Here’s what you need, with exact values — because in various group messages I’ve seen wrong information circulating on these requirements.

• Connectivity: minimum 1.5 Mbps upload and download (not 5 Mbps as some unofficial summaries claim)
• Mandatory browser: Google Chrome version 81 or later
• Operating system: Windows 8 or later, macOS 10.14 or later, or Linux
• Accessory smartphone or tablet: Android 4.1 or later, iOS 8 or later — positioned about 2.5 meters behind you as a secondary surveillance camera (not optional, mandatory)
• Control app: about 34 MB, downloadable from Play Store or App Store; the requirements check must be done within two days of the test
• Platform access advance: at least 30 minutes before the scheduled time
• Valid ID document: mandatory for webcam identification
• Help Desk: Monday-Friday 09:00-18:00

The practical advice that circulates in the group — which I share — is to set up the workstation at least two days before: install the app, verify the browser is up to date, test microphone and webcam, set up the smartphone on its stand, check the connection stability. A colleague reported having to bring the PC to service the day before because “it randomly shuts down”. Don’t wait for the morning of the exam to find out something doesn’t work. Access credentials arrive via personal email (check spam too) alongside the convocation with date, time and operational instructions.

👥 Want to attend as an auditor and see other candidates’ sessions before your turn? You can. Send a request to formez-guidaturistica@ilmiotest.it specifying the date, attaching a scan of your ID and a signed data processing form. Session assignment is random (you can’t choose), webcam must stay on, microphone off, and no intervention allowed under penalty of exclusion. Official auditor instructions published on InPA on June 19, 2026 at 21:22.

😰 The rumours circulating vs what is actually happening

Back to the dynamic I see daily in the Italian study groups. The dominant narrative is: it’s a mess, it’s confusing, we’ll never make it, they changed the rules at the last minute. Some of these fears have a real basis — the sub-commissions were appointed on June 19, the first tests started on June 23, timing is tight. Trade associations (Federagit and Fenagi Confesercenti) wrote to Minister Mazzi on May 26, 2026 asking for a suspension of the session: the request was not granted and the procedure continued.

But the objective data tells a different story from the panic narrative. Summary, with honesty on what is certain and what is likely:

• Certain: 7,844 candidates already cleared the written test — a 94% pass rate (source: MITUR, Il Sole 24 Ore, June 2026)
• Certain: the first certified candidates of the oral and technical-practical tests of 2026 were published on June 30 (source: InPA)
• Certain and verifiable: in 2025, when the selection was brutal (1.8% written eligibility rate), whoever passed the written test was almost always certified after oral and practical (source: Il Sole 24 Ore, May 14, 2026, article “Tourist guides, only 222 certified out of 12 thousand candidates at the first exam”)
• Likely, not yet published: the pass rate of the 2026 oral and technical-practical tests will most likely follow the 2025 pattern — whoever arrives prepared, passes. I have no aggregated official evidence on this for 2026 because tests started less than two weeks ago; I invite you to verify upcoming InPA publications

The most honest reading is this: the real hurdle of the national certification was the written test, and you already cleared it. Now there’s a second climb, more technical, where whoever prepares with method passes and whoever improvises loses points on communication ability (14 out of 40, let’s remember) and on programme coverage. It’s not “almost impossible”. It’s tough if postponed, manageable if tackled now.

🧠 The memorisation method behind Volume II of the Manual

Now to the part that touches the work I’ve done over these last months. The Italian Tourist Guide Exam Manual 2026 — Volume II, just released, was born from a simple question: how do you memorise 188 schemes (124 sites + 24 museums + 40 destinations) plus all Section IV legislation, in a way that on the day of the oral they come out effortlessly? Not with a bullet list of 500 facts. With a repeatable, mnemonic structure applied to every single scheme. What each scheme contains:

• Header: site name, region, UNESCO category if applicable, essential coordinates
• Data box: dates, dimensions, materials, institutional management — everything the multiple-choice quizzes drill on
• “Imagine…” opening: 400-600 words in Feynman style, where the site is described to you as if you were there in front of it. It’s the main mnemonic hook: when the commission mentions the site, you need to see it mentally before talking about it
• Historical-cultural identity: the framing that fills the gap between “knowing what’s there” and “knowing why it matters”
• 10 numbered points “What to know for the exam”: essential, the ones the commission may ask you
• STOP AND TEST YOURSELF: three exam-style questions with a guided 200-400 word answer each. It’s the simulation of the interview: if you can answer these three for every scheme, you’re ready for the oral
• Mnemonic MEMO: an all-caps acronym that packs the scheme’s key concepts into a memorable word. On exam day, when tension makes you go blank, it’s the MEMO that brings you home

The Feynman method — explaining a concept as if you had to teach it to a ten-year-old — is not a pedagogical fad: it’s the technique that overlaps perfectly with the exam situation, where you have to tell a site to a commission pretending it’s a group of tourists. The three “STOP AND TEST YOURSELF” questions were built looking at the grading grids in Annexes 5: they are the questions on which the commission grades the “knowledge and depth” line (15 points). The mnemonic MEMO serves the moment when, under proctoring, you’re asked about a site you last reviewed three weeks ago. It’s not mnemonic laziness: it’s memory engineering.

🛒 How to get it (now)

The Manual is available in two formats. The choice depends on how you study — there’s no “better” version, there’s the one that fits your method.

• 📕 Paperback on Amazon — just released, Prime shipping available. If you underline, take margin notes, carry the book around, or simply prefer not to spend more hours in front of a screen after days of digital study — this is the one to get. → Buy the paperback on Amazon
• 📄 PDF on TourLeaderPro (€24.99) — instant download, searchable, printable per single scheme. If you need it now and want to start tonight, this is the fast route. → Download the PDF
• 📦 Bundle Vol. I + Vol. II PDF (€39.99) — if you also need Volume I with the theoretical framework for the written test (useful as a transversal review for the oral), the bundle is the lowest-cost option. → Get the bundle

The Manual is designed for targeted preparation from now to the day of your session. If you’re called in ten days, you need it now. If you’re called for October or November, you have the time to use it as daily practice, one scheme a day with the three STOP AND TEST YOURSELF questions at end of session.

📅 For the official test schedule (June 23 – November 6, 2026, 61 sessions) and the complete list of the 40 Section III sites, read our reference guide: Italian Tourist Guide Exam 2026: Oral and Practical Tests — The Complete Guide for the 7,844 Eligible Candidates.

🎯 What I would do from now to exam day (5-move operational plan)

Closing with something operational. If you have your convocation in two weeks, this is what I’d suggest — cutting through motivational rhetoric.

• Move 1 — Setup. Download the proctoring app, update Chrome to the latest version, test the connection (upload/download), position the smartphone on its stand at 2.5 meters. Done within three days of the test, period.
• Move 2 — The 40 destinations. They are the most critical because you’ll be graded on one of them in the technical-practical. One scheme per day with the Manual, close the book, run the 8-minute simulation out loud. Forty days to cover them all once, then cyclic review.
• Move 3 — The legislation (Section IV). This is the territory where prepared candidates lose silly points at the oral. Cultural Heritage Code, Tourism Code, Law 190/2023, accessibility. Three 90-minute sessions per week, with the three STOP AND TEST YOURSELF questions of each legislative scheme.
• Move 4 — Foreign language. Prepare a 90-second narrative “starter” on your strongest destination, in the language, by heart. Then practice switching from Italian to the foreign language on three sites you know well. You don’t need a perfect B2, you need fluid transition.
• Move 5 — The day before. No new studying. Just review the mnemonic MEMOs and the “Imagine…” openings of Section III destinations. Sleep. On exam day, connect at least 30 minutes early, with ID ready and water on the desk.

Closing where I opened. When “PASSED” appeared on the screen, you did the hardest piece of the journey. Now you have a different test ahead — not easy, but structured, measurable, with a 40-point grid you already know how to read. Whoever arrives prepared, passes. Whoever lets the weeks slip risks retaking the next round. Volume II of the Manual is the tool that puts you in condition to arrive ready. The rest is your study hours and the voice with which, on the day of the oral, you will tell an Italian site for the first time as if you had a real group in front of you.

See you on the other side, in the ENGT.

📕 GET VOLUME II ON AMAZON  ·  📄 DOWNLOAD THE PDF (€24.99)