For a graph $G=(V(G),E(G))$, an Italian dominating function (ID function) $f:V(G)\rightarrow\{0,1,2\}$ has the property that for every vertex $v\in V(G)$ with $f(v)=0$, either $v$ is adjacent to a vertex assigned $2$ under $f$ or $v$ is adjacent to least two vertices assigned $1$ under $f$. The weight of an ID function is $\sum_{v\in V(G)}f(v)$. The Italian domination number is the minimum weight taken over all ID functions of $G$. In this paper, we initiate the study of a variant of ID functions. A restrained Italian dominating function (RID function) $f$ of $G$ is an ID function of $G$ for which the subgraph induced by $\{v\in V(G)\mid f(v)=0\}$ has no isolated vertices, and the restrained Italian domination number $γ_{rI}(G)$ is the minimum weight taken over all RID functions of $G$. We first prove that the problem of computing this parameter is NP-hard, even when restricted to bipartite graphs and chordal graphs as well as planar graphs with maximum degree five. We prove that $γ_{rI}(T)$ for a tree $T$ of order $n\geq3$ different from the double star $S_{2,2}$ can be bounded from below by $(n+3)/2$. Moreover, all extremal trees for this lower bound are characterized in this paper. We also give some sharp bounds on this parameter for general graphs and give the characterizations of graphs $G$ with small or large $γ_{rI}(G)$.