Before Italy tightened its citizenship rules, applicants were booking flights and signing leases on the strength of a government campaign urging them to connect with their roots.

Hundreds of thousands of people blocked from claiming citizenship by ancestry were urged to file new claims immediately after Italy referred the restrictions to Europe’s highest…

Before Italy tightened its citizenship rules, applicants were booking flights and signing leases on the strength of a government campaign urging them to connect with their roots.