The Italian political system in the 2010s and early 2020s was marked by multiple elements of instability, including a pronounced decline in electoral participation. It is therefore unsurprising that levels of trust in local, national, and European institutions are markedly low in the country. Yet the Italian case is particularly illustrative of the need to disentangle these dynamics at different territorial levels and examine their effects separately. Notably, trust in European institutions exhibits patterns that differ, to some extent, from those observed at the local and national levels. Its association with electoral participation across all levels, as well as with various forms of non-electoral political engagement, proves to be comparatively more robust. Perhaps even more interestingly, when analysing the relationship between different levels of trust and some issues, trust in E/U institutions is more strongly correlated with liberal attitudes on immigration, environmental protection, and gender equality. In other words, at least to some degree, indicators of institutional trust appear to mirror respondents’ underlying political preferences- an element that may pose challenges to institutional legitimacy should these patterns intensify.