10882 You'll Never Believe This!

:nah:

Just had a wonderful daytrip to Rome yesterday (25oC and wall to wall blue sky) to get replacement passports (I'll tell you about the cost a little further on....) and there I discovered a really [SIZE="4"]helpful[/SIZE] little booklet published by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office 'Going to Live Abroad'. Information is not unique to Italy but it would be useful to anyone thinking of moving to Italy.

Income, pensions, wills, learning the language, bank accounts, traffic laws, voting rights in Uk, health costs, accommodation etc covered but not in any great detail. However, many contact numbers/addresses are given.

Now on to the passport/s - it appears that there is an additional charge to renew your passport at an embassy. The price (?) for a normal UK passport in the UK is £72 but the cost yesterday was 158 euros. This is for the normal service and no postage/courier charges as we will pick up the new passports in a week or so.
(Not sure I want a package clearly marked from the Brit. Embassy with passport-sized documents inside to get lost!).

As a ps. the embassy staff were very very helpful, courteous and friendly, we were seen almost immediately and the process was quick and very efficient.