Abstract
In a time when an economic, social and cultural crisis has had an impact on the life and happiness of families and individuals, nowadays a growing number of grandparents are being a special source of informal support and resource for improving the quality of family life. These relationships between grandparents and grandchildren should be promoted and better legally recognized, given the great importance of elderly people in raising and taking care of their grandchildren. Grandparents are acquiring an increasingly role in providing grandchildcare, expecially in the early life of their grandchildren and in countries, like Italy, where public childcare services are unevenly distributed or inadequate. The Italian situation reveals a reality in which young families ask support to their families to care for the newborn. It is therefore necessary to inquire into some legal issues of family system and investigate/clarify the rights of grandparents. The purpose of the present article is to give an overall picture of the family law and regulation, in Italy, which contribute to define the legal relevance of grandparents´ position in the family and in the relationship with their grandchildren.