The event began in April 1966, when Paride Stefanini, Pietro Valdoni, Raffaello Cortesini, and Umberto Casciani performed Italy's first kidney transplants at the Policlinico Umberto I in Rome. Today, sixty years later, the Italian system is one of the most sophisticated in Europe. In 2025, an all-time high of 2,164 donations and 4,697 transplants was set. Italy now ranks second among the major European Union countries in organ donation rates, with 29.5 donors per million inhabitants. It also ranks second in the world for liver transplants relative to population, trailing only the United States, and seventh for heart transplants. Over the past 25 years, over 80,000 organ transplants have been performed in Italy, and today 50,000 transplant patients are being followed up by the national network. However, there is cause for concern: despite clinical superiority, donation support is declining among young adults. Today, roughly 8,000 people are still waiting for organs, and Minister Schillaci has stressed the significance of awareness efforts to reach those who continue to abstain.