Italy's Best Schools 2026

Italy has one of the most methodologically rigorous school-ranking systems in this series: Eduscopio, run by the Fondazione Agnelli, tracks the actual university and employment outcomes of graduates from more than 8,000 Italian schools, following students for years after they leave to see how well each school genuinely prepared them. The most recent edition analysed data from 1,355,000 graduates, giving families a level of verifiable, longitudinal evidence that goes well beyond a single year's exam results. Running alongside Italy's public liceo system is a smaller international school sector concentrated in Milan and Rome, serving expatriate families and Italian families seeking an English-medium IB or British pathway.

This ranking is merit-based across both: Italy's highest Eduscopio-ranked licei alongside the country's strongest IB and British international schools, rather than filtered to one system alone.

How Italy's School System Actually Works

Italian secondary education splits into distinct liceo types, each with a different academic emphasis. The liceo classico, dating back to 1859, is Italy's oldest secondary school type and was historically the only route into any Italian university course, making it the traditional training ground for the country's political, diplomatic, and business elite; it remains one of the few European school types where studying Latin and Ancient Greek is compulsory. The liceo scientifico emphasises mathematics and the sciences, while other liceo types cover languages, human sciences, and the arts. Eduscopio ranks schools city by city and even address by address, evaluating both university outcomes and, for technical institutes, employment results.

Italy's international schools, concentrated mainly in Milan, Rome, and Florence, run IB, British, and American curricula, with tuition ranging roughly from €6,000 to €32,000 a year depending on the city and programme. Families weighing that international option against Italy's liceo system may find our IB vs Cambridge comparison guide useful background.

1. Liceo Scientifico Giovanni Battista Ferrari

Ferrari, based in Este in the province of Padova, is the single best-performing liceo in all of Italy according to the 2025 Eduscopio rankings, posting a record score of 94.45 out of 100. It's a scientific liceo delle scienze applicate, meaning it replaces Latin with computer science in its curriculum, a genuinely modern variation on the traditional scientific track. Its top national placement, ahead of every classical, scientific, or linguistic liceo in Milan, Rome, or any other major city, is a striking result for a school based in a smaller provincial town rather than one of Italy's traditional educational capitals.

2. Liceo Scientifico Augusto Righi

Righi has held the top position among Rome's scientific licei consistently across recent Eduscopio editions, confirming its place as the Italian capital's strongest option for science-track students. Its sustained leadership in a city with dozens of competing scientific licei reflects genuinely consistent teaching quality rather than a single strong graduating cohort, and it remains the benchmark against which Rome's other scientific schools are measured.

3. Liceo Classico Giovanni Berchet

Berchet took the top spot among Milan's classical licei in the 2025 Eduscopio rankings, overtaking the previous year's leader, Quasimodo di Magenta, in university outcome results. Along with Liceo Carducci, it's one of several historic Milanese institutions competing at the top of the classical liceo rankings, and the shift at the top between editions shows genuine year-on-year competition rather than a single school locking in permanent dominance. For families researching what actually separates a school performing at this level from a strong national average, our piece on what drives strong exam outcomes covers similar underlying factors around sustained teaching quality.

4. Liceo Classico Ennio Quirino Visconti

Visconti has held the top position among Rome's classical licei across multiple recent Eduscopio editions, making it the clear benchmark for classical, humanities-focused education in the Italian capital. As a liceo classico, it maintains Italy's traditional compulsory study of Latin and Ancient Greek, a curriculum type that has trained much of the country's political and diplomatic elite since the mid-19th century.

5. Liceo Scientifico Alessandro Volta

Volta has occupied the top position among Milan's scientific licei consistently across the 2023, 2024, and 2025 Eduscopio editions, alongside its close competitor Leonardo Da Vinci. That multi-year consistency at the very top, in a city with one of Italy's most competitive scientific liceo markets, places Volta among the most reliably strong institutions in this entire ranking.

6. Liceo Classico Paolo Sarpi

Sarpi, founded in 1506 in Bergamo, is one of the oldest schools in this entire series, and it currently holds the second-highest national ranking among Italy's classical licei. Its five-century institutional history gives it a depth of tradition matched by very few schools anywhere in the world, and its consistent presence near the very top of Italy's national classical liceo rankings confirms that historical prestige has translated into genuinely sustained academic performance.

7. Liceo Classico Camillo Benso di Cavour

Cavour is the clear leader among Turin's classical licei, named after the Italian statesman who helped unify the country in the 19th century. Its consistent top position in Turin's Eduscopio rankings, alongside the strong scientific liceo Edoardo Agnelli in the same city, confirms Turin's place as one of Italy's genuinely strong secondary education hubs outside Milan and Rome.

8. International School of Milan (ISM)

ISM is one of Italy's most respected IB World Schools, delivering the full IB continuum from the Primary Years Programme through to the Diploma across two Milan campuses. It's well regarded for academic rigour, giving Milan's international and expatriate families a genuinely well-established alternative to the city's strong public liceo system. Families weighing this IB pathway seriously may find our curriculum comparison guide useful groundwork.

9. St. Stephen's School, Rome

St. Stephen's is an American-international IB boarding and day school located near the centre of Rome, giving both local Roman families and internationally mobile students a genuinely flexible enrolment option. Its combination of American-style structure with the full IB Diploma Programme places it among Rome's strongest international schools, comparable to similar American-IB hybrid schools we've profiled in our Turkey schools guide.

10. The British School of Milan

The British School of Milan, known as Sir James Henderson, is one of Italy's premier international schools, with a diverse student body representing more than 40 nationalities. It combines British curriculum structure with IB options and a strong extracurricular programme spanning sports, arts, music, and community service, giving Milan families a genuinely comprehensive UK-oriented pathway.

What This List Reveals: Rigorous, Longitudinal Verification

Eduscopio's methodology, tracking more than a million graduates' actual university and employment outcomes over multiple years rather than relying on a single exam snapshot, gives Italy's school rankings a depth of verification matched by very few countries in this series, on par with the official longitudinal data we found researching France's IVAL system. What that data specifically reveals is genuine year-on-year competitiveness at the top: schools like Milan's classical liceo ranking have changed leaders between editions, showing that Italy's elite secondary tier isn't a fixed hierarchy but one where sustained teaching quality has to be actively maintained.

Liceo, IB, or British Curriculum: What the Choice Actually Means

For families planning to remain in Italy long-term, the liceo system, whether classico, scientifico, or another track, remains the most direct and tuition-free route into Italian universities, with Eduscopio data giving families genuine confidence in a specific school's track record. For expatriate families or those planning international university study, ISM's full IB continuum or St. Stephen's American-IB hybrid model offer considerably more global portability. Families still weighing this decision can work through the specifics in our Cambridge IGCSE parent guide.

Supporting Students Across Italy's School System

Whether your child is working through a liceo classico or scientifico track, or pursuing the IB Diploma at ISM or St. Stephen's, focused subject-specific tutoring outside school hours can make a genuine difference, particularly for students balancing an international curriculum with life in Italy. If you're unsure whether your child needs that kind of targeted support right now, our article on early warning signs is a useful starting point regardless of which curriculum they're following.

Mathrone Academy provides one-on-one tutoring across Cambridge IGCSE and A-Level and the full IB Diploma, delivered online to students anywhere in the world, including international families at Italy's IB and British schools.

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