When you start your immigration process, you would have to get some documents from Italy first, then go back to your country and give them to the Italian embassy there in order to get a long stay visa. And they will ask to see a rental contract (unless you have a friend in Italy that can write you a letter stating you will be staying with him for the first few months or first year).
And even after you get the visa, you will (probably) not be able to get a normal apartment rental contract for 6 months or more because homeowners will want to see your residency permit, although some might settle for the receipt from the post office of your appointment in Questura even though it’s for your first permesso.
There is a law forbidding from renting to a person that doesn’t have a residency permit.
Item 5-bis:
https://www.brocardi.it/testo-unico-immigrazione/titolo-ii/capo-ii/art12.html
And that takes months. Some homeowners or rental agencies might settle for you showing them the receipt of payment in the Italian postoffice indicating you have payed for your permesso di soggiorno and you are just waiting for your appointment now.
You won’t stay in a hotel for that long because it’s too expensive (unless you can afford it), so your best choice would be getting a tourist apartment with AirBnb.
If you don’t have any reviews on AirBnb from previous places you’ve stayed in around the world (and even if you do), it would be difficult to make a booking for let’s say 6 months. So you should start by making a booking for 2 months, and a few weeks before it ends, ask to extend it if available (you should let your homeowner know you might want that, so if anyone is asking to book a few days he should let you know first). And if you can’t extend it, be prepared to find a different AirBnb to move into.
The law in Italy requires any homeowner renting his apartment to you for more than 30 days, to sign a rental contract with you. Which is good for you. That way you will have a rental contract to show when you start collecting documents in Italy and going to your embassy.
The type of contract they will sign with you will be a “transitory contract” which is technically not enough to get a long-term visa. They will expect a permanent long-term contract. However as mentioned before, it’s illegal to rent long-term to a non-EU immigrant that hasn’t received his permesso di soggiorno yet. So you’re stuck in a loop.
You will need to make it clear to the embassy that a long-term contract is illegal and what you will give them is a transitory contract. Get their agreement to that in writing via email if possible or voice recording. (Just make sure you still have a few months left on your contract by the time of your appointment in the embassy).
If you’re going to live in a small town, they may not be aware or care about this law and you would be able to get a long-term rental contract before you even get the visa. The question is, do you want to. What will happen if your visa application gets denied and you’ve already signed a contract.. So I suggest to confront the embassy with the law and get them to agree to a transitory contract for a few months. You might need to have a lawyer pressure them if they object.
Anyway, in the rental contract, you will need to fill-in your Italian tax code (Codice Fiscale). That’s something the homeowner will ask you to.
They like this code in Italy and many places will ask you for it.
As a tourist, that’s something you can do quite easily.
Once you have that, send it to your homeowner and then you can sign the contract with him. (He will give you a few days after you arrive to get this code).
You should make sure what is the status of the internet in the home before booking it. Even if it says that it does have internet, some homes in Italy still have limited internet connection (i.e. up to 1GB from 08:00 to midnight and then it’s free until the morning). So if that’s important for you, make sure it’s unlimited. If it’s not you can ask the homeowner to change it. It usually won’t cost him more.
