Housing

SISSA provides housing information to help students, researchers and visitors find accommodation in Trieste. The School has no guesthouse, student residences or dedicated housing office.

The housing service is managed by the Welcome and Welfare Office (WEL), through onsite noticeboards at via Bonomea 265, and by an external company, through an online noticeboard reserved for SISSA personnel, guests and students.

All accommodation is privately rented. Landlords are responsible for their listings, rental requirements and contracts with tenants.

More information on SISSAnet

Starting from September, SISSA offers the “Cerco Alloggio” accommodation service, which helps people looking for a house or room to rent in Trieste.

The service gives free access to all the ads on a multilingual, accessible web platform, with photographs of each property, address, price, owners’ contacts and other useful details: cercoalloggio.com/en/partners/sissa.

The service is available for Italian and foreign non-resident PhD students, professors, and researchers looking for accommodation in Trieste who are regularly enrolled or registered at SISSA.

Students using the service for accommodation search support will be required to pay a fee of € 150 (VAT included), only if the search results in the final signing of a regular lease agreement.

For information, support or assistance in finding available accommodation, please contact the Housing service staff by email (trieste@cercoalloggio.com) specifying your name, position and Area of study or research at SISSA.

Please remember to insert in copy to your first email housing@sissa.it for the activation of the service in your name, but also the reference Secretariat or office in SISSA’s administration who can confirm your “belonging to SISSA’s community” (e.g., phd@sissa , events@sissa, contrattiricerca@sissa ....) .

After SISSA confirms your status, you will be granted access to the online notice board "SISSA-tenants preferred", which will facilitate the selection of accommodation opportunities (apartments and rooms) available in Trieste.

Housing service contacts:

Besides their noticeboard, the HousingSISSA staff is available to help you with housing- and lodging-related procedures, when available resources are not sufficient for you to handle the issue autonomously (web-based translation engines, community-based groups and socials...), for example:

  • assistance with utility-related procedures (electricity, gas, phone line and internet connection, etc.);
  • general information on tenancy agreements and housing fees (waste tax, tv tax, etc.);
  • language assistance if you do not speak Italian to prevent misunderstandings.

At your request, the housing service will give you advice to ensure that you sign a regular rental contract and all due communications are fulfilled in due time ("Cessione di Fabbricato" to non-EU citizens, swift registration of the rent contract to allow your access to Registry office of Trieste Townhall). A regularly registered rent contract is a requisite to obtain a Permit of Stay for non-EU citizens, and to obtain registration into the resident population of Trieste (all nationalities, Italian included).

In order to improve the housing facility, a feedback form will be sent to you at a later stage. Thank you in advance for your collaboration

Accommodation in Trieste can normally be found within a few weeks of arrival, but plan carefully for arrivals at the beginning of the academic year, especially from 1 October: book in advance for the two weeks that precede “Barcolana”, held every year on the second Sunday of October.

Announcements of rooms or apartments available, or of students looking for fellow students to share, are also put on the noticeboard on the ground floor of SISSA's building in via Bonomea.

Announcements can be found on the web and on social networks, but also by consulting the links published on the web site Welcome Office Accommodation. To get an idea about the place, in English: About - InTrieste ; for Housing-related issues, in English, useful tips are always available here: Private accommodation | Welcome Office FVG

Students, please note that you should provide the Students' Secretariat with a regular contract in order to be entitled to specific benefits or dedicated reimbursements. For further information about regular rental contracts please consult the Students@SISSA wiki and the W.O. portal: Tenancy agreements | Welcome Office FVG

Italian and foreign students can normally find accommodation in Trieste within a few weeks from their arrival. Usually two or three students share a flat, costing from 300 to 450 Euro each per month. One can expect to pay from a minimum of about 250 Euro a month for a room in an apartment, and starting from 450 Euro a month for a studio or small apartment (utilities EXCLUDED, e.g. electricity, water, gas bills, waste tax & wiFi).

Rental lodgings in Trieste are generally equipped and fully furnished and require, for this reason, a caution in the form of a rather substantial deposit to be paid together with the first month’s rent (not uncommon: two months’ rent for the deposit, which is returned to you at the end of the contract upon verification that no damages were made to the apartment and its content).

In case you need to receive additional luggage, be aware that no personal shipments can be ordered to SISSA’s address, besides Amazon deliveries of books or items of small size (amazon Locker available at SISSA's postal service of floor -1): take the time to get organized, establish contacts with your group at SISSA, eventually plan or postpone the shipment after finding a stable address! SISSA has no agreement with International shipping companies and is not able to help you much further on this specific issue.

Before fixing a place for your first days in Trieste, spend some time to get familiar with SISSA’s campus and its location: reaching SISSA on foot or by bike is a fitness activity to the top of the hill, with a beautiful view on the Adriatic sea. The shape of the town does not allow multiple paths to get here, and you may prefer the location of your place to be convenient for daily commuting to SISSA (bus line 38 starts not far from the train station/piazza Oberdan; crucial hours can be crowded, e.g. 8am uphill to SISSA, 5 pm downhill to town).

Physics and Mathematics Area members: ascertain with your scientific referent whether the location of your office might be assigned in Strada Costiera 11, ICTP campus (aka "old SISSA building"): very seldom the case, but better be prepared. SISSA to ICTP is not a straight path.

Transport facilities | Welcome Office FVG

Trieste Trasporti Spa Trasporto pubblico locale nella provincia di Trieste

A regularly registered rent or hospitality contract is a requisite to obtain a Permit of Stay for non-EU citizens (be this for Study, Research, Work, or Family), and to obtain registration into the resident population of Trieste (all nationalities, Italian included).

Free assistance to tenants in case of issues arising with landlords and with reference to regularly registered rent contracts can be asked to one of the "Sindacato Inquilini" operating in town (e.g., sedi e orari friuli venezia giulia (sunia.it) , UNIAT Unione Nazionale Inquilini Ambiente e Territorio | UIL fvg , Friuli Venezia Giulia - Sicet.it).

Make sure to sign a regular rental contract and ascertain that all compulsory communications are fulfilled in due time (for example, swift registration of the rent contract to allow your access to Registry office of Trieste Townhall, "Cessione di Fabbricato" to non-EU citizens, acquisition of "Idoneità Abitativa" certificate for obtaining a visa or Permit of Stay for dependent Family members, non-EU citizens).

Information in English relative to these procedures and their accomplishment in Trieste can be found in the dedicated section of the Welcome Office FVG: Formalities for guests and family members | Welcome Office FVG

Information and assistance to international students and researchers before and during their stay in Friuli Venezia Giulia: Take the time to browse the section relative to Accommodation and start to get familiar with the rent jargon!

Welcome Office FVG is the regional one-stop-shop dedicated to international students and researchers.

It offers free information and personalized support on mobility-related issues through a compelling informative website. Take the time to browse the section relative to Accommodation and start to get familiar with the rent jargon, which in turn can make it easier to widen your search on the web or social networks with keywords in Italian (“affitto”, “stanza”, “appartamento”…). On the Welcome Office Portal, take the time to explore top- and side-menu, and dedicated sections: available tools and info-sheets are many, just to give you an idea we list some below:

  • get to do your list
  • information on what to do before leaving Trieste
  • Italian Language courses
  • relocating with family
  • information on the so-called idoneità alloggiativa (“Idoneità Abitativa”: certificate of suitability of accommodation - documentation requested for family members of students, i.e. family reunion visas or accompanying family members Permit of Stay)

... and much more, also under the News or Glossary sections!

Back to main content