The article compares the language and translation policies of the public administrationin two neighbouring multilingual areas, South Tyrol and Switzerland.We first discuss the concept of institutional translation, before giving some historical and legal backgroundinformation on the two areas (especially for less known South Tyrol). Furthermore, we explore the multilingual regime of their public administration, the translation policies,and organisational units.We then introduce the exploratory study performed in 2017 inSouth Tyrol to collect information relevant to the translation policies and practices in theprovincial administration. Finally, we compare the results of the exploratory study to theSwiss approach concerning aspects such as translator training, texts typologies, translation process, and tools/resources employed.We conclude by highlighting the lessons that the South Tyrolean local administration might learn from the Swiss federal administration in the domain of institutional translation.