Born in Carrara, but the state records it as ‘Apuania’: what to do in the event of errors in the civil register
When renewing her identity card, an 82-year-old woman discovered a different place of birth, and errors like this are not all that uncommon
Apuania was a municipality established during the Fascist era; it comprised Massa, Carrara and Montignoso and existed from 1938 to 1946. This name resurfaced when Anna Maria Tonazzini, who now lives on the island of Vulcano, went to Lipari to renew her identity card. There, she discovered that her place of birth was no longer listed as Carrara but, in fact, as Apuania.
The story was reported by *Il Tirreno*, to which the woman described the difficulties and administrative concerns she had faced in her case.
What to do if an error occurs
“First of all, I’d go to the town hall,” says Tonino Morina, a tax specialist and expert at *Il Sole 24 Ore*. The starting point is the registry office: you need to ask them to explain what information has changed, why, and on the basis of which documents.
“It is essential that this be corrected,” Morina emphasises. In the case of Apuania, however, the name of the defunct municipality may well be the correct one. Tonazzini was founded in 1944, when that area still bore its Fascist-era name. A person’s place of birth remains tied to the administrative geography of that time, regardless of subsequent changes: a principle reaffirmed by the government in a response to the Chamber of Deputies in 2022.
A correction of this kind “may be reported directly by the citizen or initiated by the local authority”, explains Morina. For factual errors in the personal details record, the National Register’s online correction service is also available, allowing citizens to request that the local authority correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
