Removals to Italy.
The one with the most rules waiting at the other end — Alpine tunnels, traffic-restricted centres, and buildings that predate removal vehicles by several centuries. All manageable, none of it improvised.
Three things to arrange early
Your codice fiscale. The import entry cannot be completed without it, and nothing else in Italy works without it either.
Traffic-zone access. If your address is inside a historic centre, the delivery needs a permit from the comune. That is arranged in advance, and it shapes what time of day the vehicle can be at your door.
Whether the building will take the furniture. In older blocks the answer is frequently no, and the solution is a hoist. Worth establishing before the load is on a lorry in the Alps.
The journey, and why winter matters
Across the Channel, through France towards Lyon, then over the Alps — usually Mont Blanc into the Aosta valley or Fréjus into Turin. The Italian motorway network takes it on from there.
The Alpine section is the part that makes this route different. The tunnels carry lorry restrictions and can queue or close in bad weather, so Italian transit windows are wider than French ones. We build that into the estimate rather than discovering it.
Arrival, depending on where
City centres
Milan and Rome are the commonest destinations for people moving from the UK for work. Both mean an apartment, a permit, a booked window and possibly a hoist.
Tuscany, Umbria and the countryside
Farmhouses at the end of an unmade white road with a gate at the bottom — beautiful, and reliably too narrow for a full-size lorry. Small-vehicle territory, and usually a renovation in progress.
The lakes and the south
Lakeside property often has steps down from the road, which is a carrying problem rather than a driving one. Puglia and the far south are simply a long way down the peninsula and served less frequently, so patience with the schedule matters more than logistics.
What we need to quote it
The region, the nearest town, whether the property is habitable on arrival, the access, and how firm the date is. If building work is still running, say so — pricing in storage is far better than unloading into a room with no floor.
See moving to Europe for transport methods, or France, which shares the first half of this route.
Moving to Italy — questions
What is a codice fiscale?
The Italian tax code. The import entry cannot be completed without one, and you will need it for almost everything else in Italy too — a bank account, a phone contract, a utility. Get it before the move rather than after.
What is a ZTL and why does it matter?
A limited traffic zone. Most Italian historic centres have one, camera-enforced, and driving into it without a permit produces fines that arrive weeks later. Access is arranged with the local comune in advance and the delivery timed around the permitted window — it is the most common way an Italian move costs more than it should.
Does winter really affect it?
Yes, more than on any other route we run. The Alpine tunnels carry lorry restrictions and can queue or close in bad weather. That is why Italian transit windows are wider, and we would rather tell you that when quoting than explain it in February.
Do Italian buildings need a hoist?
In city centres, often. Older apartment blocks have stairwells and lifts that will not take furniture, and an exterior hoist through a window or balcony is the standard Italian answer rather than something exotic. We arrange it where that is the right solution.
Our house is mid-renovation.
Very common on this route, and worth being realistic about. Unloading into a property with no finished floors or no lockable door is how furniture gets ruined. We will ask what state it is in and hold the load rather than deliver into a building site.
Moving to Italy?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and when you are hoping to move. We will take it from there, and there is no pressure at the end of it.