This paper analyzes the Italian legislation in the field of integrated river basin management, paying particular attention to its institutional aspects and planning tools, mainly to the river basin management plan. In Italy, the integrated river basin management took its first steps through Law 183, of 1989, on soil defense, which divided the national territory into multiple areas, each with a newly established basin authority. The subsequent series of different regulatory measures, among which also the European Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/CE), illustrates the strain, which occurs in this sector, between the general and the particular. This arises firstly in the territorial definition of the hydrographic basin and in the allocation of powers between different bodies operating in the identified area. The Italian experience suggests that the creation of excessively fragmented management units can generate hindrances in water governance, especially in the process of gathering and managing information on the availability and use of water resources at the national level. On the other hand, this paper aims at highlighting the need for legal tools that link basin plans with other measures, both of general and particular scope. In Italy, the Law 36/1994 and subsequent acts, in particular the Legislative Decree 152/2006, currently in force, have introduced relevant changes to the initial river basin management design, which have had an impact, among other things, on the coordination between the different planning tools and between the river basin plan and more specific administrative acts, especially concessions for the use of water resources.