554 Do it yourself moving to Italy

[QUOTE=Mick Chick]I wonder if anybody can advise me regarding what is or is not allowed to be brought to Italy from England. Bearing in mind that I shall be driving through France and switzerland. I intend to hire a transit and along with a willing helper make the necessary journeys over several trips starting in July.
My wife and I are retiring to Italy and this seems a rather fun way of dealing with the issue of moving.[/QUOTE]

If you have any goods on which duty is charged then you shouldn't be driving through Switzerland. There's always the possibility of a customs check at the border. If you plan your route to go through EU countries only then you can take what the heck you like. It's important to remember Switzerland is not a member of the EU and there are still border controls, even though the Swiss are fairly relaxed about the whole thing.

The Swiss have been known to demand various customs forms and a very detailed inventory for the contents of loads - if one is not forthcoming they can refuse entry. It does seem to vary and depend upon who is on duty as to how officious they are, but if possible it is probably easier to avoid travelling through Switzerland and use another 'EU only' route.
Good luck
Anne2

The drive through Switzerland is delightful, BUT, it will cost you a charge of around 30 euro for a years "road tax", and the border checks can be fairly demanding, they also restrict goods vehicle driving at weekends, again, some police are more flexible than others about the definition of a goods vehicle, better to avoid having the argument if possible.

Hi, I have just moved to Verona and we moved ourselves in a long base transit. We came through Germany and had no trouble whatsoever. Found the channel tunnel the best especially as we bought our cat with us. Your TV probably won't work here unless it is a very expensive plasma one that can be changed over or you are just going to watch English satellite. Incidentally we are picking satellite easily with a 85c dish but as we are in flats surrounded by buildings it is had to pick up ITV and BBC although we have done. Try to bring your washing machine as most machines here only have a 500 or 600 spin, to get a high spin speed you must pay quite a bit. (Boring I know boys). Hope you enjoy your retirement here, its a great place. Don't get stressed with the paperwork, it eventually gets easier.

[QUOTE=valgee]Your TV probably won't work here unless it is a very expensive plasma one that can be changed over or you are just going to watch English satellite.[/QUOTE]

Err I dont' see why, both Italy and the UK use the same PAL TV standard. I've not bothered bringing a TV to Italy, however the Hauppage TV card in my computer works perfectly well in Italy.

Well, that is if your idea of good TV is old men running pointless games shows, shopping channels, MTV, and endless telethons. Oh, it's just like TV in the UK in fact, wall to wall rubbish.

Come off it Steve, oooops, sorry, Mighty Senator... . "Domenica In" is worth the licence fee on its own. Brit TV's work well here, a rough rule of thumb is if they have scart socket on rear you should have few problems, also, when you have the sun, why buy a high spin speed washing machine any way, the higher the speed the more likely they are to wear out, as in many areas here, Piano, piano.

We've just the do it yourself move and we found it a very stressful process. However there were many other contributing factors which made it so.

We are not particuarly precise or very organised people. Last minute is our middle names. If you are going to do it yourself I think you have to be very very organised.

If you do it yourself you can save a LOT of money and you can bring pets with you at the same time which is a another big bonus.

Things I learnt along the way. Make sure you tell the ferry company that it is not commercial. This is because they have leyway whether you can go commercial or tourist. Also you can then take a 7.5tonner on tourist (not normally allowed. Saved us about £200.
Shop around for the best crossing deal - there are loads of them.
Shop around for van hire - you can get really good deals.
Make sure you have a itemised list of everything on the van. Stamped and everything. This is not so important for EU countries but for Switzerland very important. Without the list they start making you unpack everything in case there is something on there that shouldn't be. Speak to Customs about how to go about this.

If I think of anything else I post again.

[QUOTE=valgee]Try to bring your washing machine as most machines here only have a 500 or 600 spin, to get a high spin speed you must pay quite a bit.[/QUOTE]

We have an AEG 1150 spin washing machine bought here for about 400 euros which seemed a pretty good price to us. Remember that machines here are different to ours in the UK as they are cold fill only and use less Kw for obvious reasons!

[QUOTE=GeorgeS]Come off it Steve, oooops, sorry, Mighty Senator... . "Domenica In" is worth the licence fee on its own. Brit TV's work well here, a rough rule of thumb is if they have scart socket on rear you should have few problems, also, when you have the sun, why buy a high spin speed washing machine any way, the higher the speed the more likely they are to wear out, as in many areas here, Piano, piano.[/QUOTE]

Sorry, but a 500 spin won't do a lot of good in the winter. Where we are its minus 10 in the winter. We looked everwhere in Verona and couldn't find a 1000 or more spin speed for less than about 480 Euros, which I found expensive. Sorry if I am wrong about the TV but our one wouldn't pick up Italian TV and if you check out [url]www.bigdishsat.com[/url] it tells you that although we both use PAL, the UK PAL is PAL I and the rest use PAL G, also our video will only work on satellite. As for the TV I didn't say whether I thought it was worth it or not.

Our UK tv did not work in Italy. Although it was PAL it was apparently of the wrong signal group so we got pictures but no sound. You have to have a multi standard TV if it is to work. I think most of the newer ones are but ours was only a few years old and was not. Also, our rather old and now deceased video recorder would not record from Italian tv, again I think the new ones will work fine as they are all multi standard.
As for washing machines, Valgee is right, a low spin speed is fine in the summer but on damp days and during winter the prospect of dripping washing does not appeal and ENEL must rub their hand is glee when the tumble driers get going!
Anne2

Like Penny got our washing machine here at very reasonable cost. It is an Indesit with a variable spin speed from 400-1000 so adjust according to weather. Also bear in mind washing machines do not like being moved once in position!

My washing machine from the Uk was fine. In fact I have seen the same one sold here.

[QUOTE=Kirstin]My washing machine from the Uk was fine. In fact I have seen the same one sold here.[/QUOTE]
Don't mean to boast or anything but we have bought a Miele... and pure honey it is too. It weighs the clothes, has a little light that shines through the glass door like the cooker does and uses no electricity at all and only an egg cup full of water for each load and a very well presented Miele engineer arrives in a red van to approve the installation before breaking the seal. Only trouble is that it cost about as much as a broken-down house in Abruzzo although, unlike the aforementioned, it is guaranteed for 6 years.

Hmm, just got rid of a Zanussi after having it for 25 years. In all that time the only failure it suffered was a broken door catch and that was our fault. We bought another one. Zanussi is Italian but they're not sold as Zanussi in Italy. Unfortunately I can't remember what they are sold as.

[QUOTE=lotaresco]Hmm, just got rid of a Zanussi after having it for 25 years. In all that time the only failure it suffered was a broken door catch and that was our fault. We bought another one. Zanussi is Italian but they're not sold as Zanussi in Italy. Unfortunately I can't remember what they are sold as.[/QUOTE]

Why do you say that "Zanussi is Italian"? The Zanussi family sold out to Electrolux (a Swedish company) quite a number of years ago and, much to the frustration of the industrious folk of the Italian Nord-Est, production is now moving to Hungary and elsewhere.
If you care at all about the nationality of your washing machine then global companies like Electrolux would like you to believe that an Arthur Martin is French, an AEG is German, a Zanussi is Italian (Italians though know them as REX).
Your new Zanussi might even be assembled in Italy but the parts are about as Italian as the olives that produced that extra vergine Italian olive oil that you can buy at Tescos. Does it or should it matter?

Both the Zanussi's we bought are marked "Made in Italy." I'm sure this is better than buying somethign marked "made in china" as far as providing work for Italian citizens is concerned.

As to Tesco I produce good EVOO and I can sell it to the local cooperative for a higher price than Tesco charge for what is supposed to be Italian EVOO. Tesco is IMO involved in "passing off" inferior products and I have written to my MP about it and pestered Trading Standards. Not that any of them care.