Removals to Italy from the UK
Moving to Italy starts with the last few streets
The drive from the UK to Italy, across the Channel, through France and over the Alps, is long but simple. The hard part is usually the final approach. Restricted traffic zones, streets built for carts, and fourth-floor flats up stone staircases decide how a move to Italy is planned. So that is where we start: with the address, before we talk about volume.
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Send us your Italian addressThree questions we ask about every Italian address
Is the address inside a ZTL?
If it is, the vehicle needs a permit before it enters, or the goods are transferred outside the zone.
How close can a vehicle actually park?
In a hill town that might be the edge of the piazza, a few streets from your door. We plan the carry from there.
What is between the street and the rooms?
Courtyards, stone staircases, small lifts, and whether the windows are big enough for a hoist.
Can a removal lorry drive into a ZTL?
A ZTL, short for zona a traffico limitato, is a restricted traffic zone. Most Italian cities and many smaller towns have one around their historic centre, including Rome, Florence, Bologna, Pisa, Siena and Milan. Entry points are watched by cameras that read number plates, and a vehicle without a permit is fined automatically, often some time after the event. A removal lorry is not exempt because it is delivering furniture. There are two ways to handle it. The first is a temporary access permit, requested from the comune or the local police for the vehicle and the date. The second is to park outside the zone and bring the goods in by a smaller van or on trolleys. Which one works depends on the town, the size of the vehicle and how far the door is from the boundary. We check your address against the zone before we quote.
How does furniture get into an old Italian building?
No single trick covers every Italian street. These are the four we combine, decided at survey.
- Shuttle vans
- The main vehicle parks where it legally can, often outside the old walls or at an industrial estate on the edge of town, and a smaller van runs the goods in. It is the standard answer to medieval streets.
- Furniture hoists
- An external lift that sets up on the street and takes furniture up through a window or onto a balcony. It saves wide pieces from a narrow stone stair, and it needs space and sometimes a permit to stand.
- Parking permits
- Occupying a street to load or unload usually needs permission from the comune. We tell you which office to contact, and what details to give them, once your date is set.
- Dismantling on site
- Large wardrobes, bed frames and dining tables are taken apart where they will not turn a corner, then rebuilt in the room.
Sicily and Sardinia
Both islands are part of our Italian route. A move to Sicily, whether Palermo, Catania, Syracuse or the Baroque towns around Noto, runs the length of the mainland and crosses the Strait of Messina by ferry. A move to Sardinia, to Cagliari, Olbia, Alghero or the Costa Smeralda, takes a longer sea crossing from a mainland port. Island moves are almost always better as a full load.
For an island move, we will want to know
- The nearest port to your new home
- Whether the address is in a hill village or on the coast road
- Any dates you are tied to, so the ferry can be booked around them
North, centre and south
The north
Milan and the lakes, including Como, Garda and Maggiore. Turin and Piedmont, Bologna and Emilia-Romagna, Verona and the Veneto. City apartments and lakeside villas on narrow shore roads.
The centre
Florence, Siena, Lucca and the Tuscan countryside, Umbria around Perugia and Spoleto, Le Marche, and Rome. Hill towns, farmhouse conversions and historic city flats.
The south
Naples and Campania, Puglia from Bari to the Salento, and Calabria. Whitewashed old towns with lanes a van only just fits down.
Italian paperwork, as it affects the move
Four terms come up on almost every move to Italy. Your lawyer or adviser handles residency itself; this is what we need to know from you.
- Codice fiscale
- Italy's tax code, needed for almost everything: renting, buying, utilities, a bank account. You can apply through an Italian consulate before you move or at the tax office once there. We will ask for it for the customs paperwork.
- Visa and permesso di soggiorno
- Since Brexit, UK nationals settling in Italy generally need a national visa issued before departure, followed by a residence permit, the permesso di soggiorno, applied for after arrival.
- Registering with the comune
- Registering your residence with the town hall, known as iscrizione anagrafica, puts your new address on record. It is strong evidence for customs that you have genuinely moved your home.
- Customs relief on your belongings
- Household goods you have owned and used for a qualifying period can enter without duty under EU relief for a transfer of residence. Italian customs wants an itemised inventory, your passport and proof of residence. The inventory and the British export entry are drawn up on our side; the residence proof comes from you.
Official guidance is on GOV.UK's page about living in Italy.
Why can two Italian moves of the same size cost different amounts?
Because in Italy the volume is only the starting point. Two families with identical furniture, one going to a villa outside Lucca and one to a fourth-floor flat inside Florence's ZTL, need very different deliveries. The Florence move may need an access permit or a transfer outside the zone, a shuttle van for the last stretch and a hoist for the sofa; the Lucca move may need none of them. Add the choice between a full and a part load, a ferry if you are going to Sicily or Sardinia, crating for art or antiques, and any storage, and the estimates separate quickly. That is why we ask for the address before anything else.
Whatever the address, the written estimate already contains the survey, export packing and the itemised customs inventory, the UK export declaration, collection from your home, whether that is a London flat or a house outside Manchester, Bristol or Edinburgh, the drive and any ferry, delivery with furniture placed and rebuilt, and goods-in-transit cover at the level shown. The other three routes are compared on the international removals page, and the first leg of this drive is described on the removals to France page.
Removals to Italy: common questions
It depends on the comune. Some towns issue temporary access to the removal company for its vehicle and date; others want the request made, or backed, by the resident, sometimes with a copy of the lease or deed. Before quoting we find out which applies to your address and tell you exactly what, if anything, we need from you. Where a permit is impractical for a large lorry, the goods are transferred to a smaller van outside the zone instead.
Yes, and it is a large part of our Italian work. The usual pattern is that the lorry parks where it can, a smaller van or hand trolleys cover the last stretch, and large pieces go up by stairs or by an external furniture hoist through a window. What decides the plan is the street width, the stairwell and whether a hoist can stand outside. Photos of the street, the entrance and the stairs let us plan it properly.
Yes, both are on our Italian route. The vehicle drives the length of the mainland and finishes by sea: across the Strait of Messina to Sicily, or from a mainland port such as Livorno, Genoa or Civitavecchia to Sardinia. Ferry crossings are booked as part of your move, and the cost is in your quote rather than added later. Island deliveries suit a full load, because shared runs to the islands are less frequent.
Before you do almost anything else. Renting, buying, a bank account and the utilities all ask for it, and it normally appears on the customs paperwork for your belongings too. Because an Italian consulate in the UK can issue it, it is one of the few Italian documents you can have in hand before the survey. Applying at an Agenzia delle Entrate office after arrival also works, but then the customs side waits for it.
Planning a move to Italy?
Give us the full Italian address. If it is in a historic centre, we will start with the access.