The 64-year-old fugitive landed at the capital’s Ciampino airport in a government aircraft on Monday morning, after he was captured in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra on Saturday.
He was not wearing handcuffs and gave a cold smile as he was escorted off the plane by a dozen police officers.
Battisti was to be taken to Rome’s Rebibbia jail, according to local media.
He is expected to serve the first six months of his life sentence in solitary confinement.
Matteo Salvini, Italy’s far-right interior minister, and Alfonso Bonafede, the justice minister, were present at the airport upon Battisti’s arrival.
“In the name of 60 million Italians, I want to thank law enforcement for having given us this ray of sunlight, this hope, this certainty, this renewed faith in justice,” Salvini told journalists.
“This is not the finish line but the starting point.”
Salvini thanked the Italian and foreign police who captured “a delinquent who did not deserve the comfortable life on the beach, and who should spend the rest of his days in prison”.
