Gillingham → Italy
Removals from Gillingham to Italy
Italy is the route with a mountain range in the middle of it. Everything about a Medway to Italy removal — the vehicle, the timing, the season — is shaped by which way we cross the Alps.
Northern Italy
Milan, Turin, Bergamo, Brescia, the lakes. Predominantly work moves — people relocating for a job, often into an apartment, often on a date that cannot slip. The access problems are urban ones: courtyard entrances, a lift that takes two people and a suitcase, and a parking permit that has to be arranged with the comune.
The routing for the north is the Fréjus tunnel from France into Piedmont, or Mont Blanc into the Aosta valley. Both are quick and both are subject to closure in bad weather, so we plan a coast-road fallback on every winter load.
Liguria — Genoa, the Cinque Terre coast, Sanremo — is the exception. That comes in along the coast through Ventimiglia and avoids the mountains entirely.
Central Italy and the south
Tuscany, Umbria, Le Marche and Abruzzo are the renovation regions, and they generate a very different kind of load: fewer white goods, more furniture, and a delivery address at the end of a track. Hilltop villages are common and so are streets a Luton has no business being in. We survey these on satellite before we commit a vehicle.
Rome and Naples are mostly apartment deliveries with ZTL restrictions attached. Puglia has grown steadily — trulli conversions and coastal properties around Ostuni and Lecce — and it is the longest drive on our Italian book.
Wherever it ends, the run comes down the A1 Autostrada del Sole from Milan, or down the Adriatic side on the A14 if the destination sits east of the Apennines.
ZTL — the thing nobody mentions until it is a problem
Most Italian towns of any age have a zona a traffico limitato around the historic centre: camera-enforced, permit-only, often with a time window. Driving a removal vehicle in without a permit earns a fine per camera you pass, and the fines arrive months later. So we check your delivery address against the local ZTL before the move is scheduled, apply for a permit where one is available, and where it is not we park legally outside the zone and shuttle in. It costs a little more time. It costs far less than the alternative.
Italian customs and what you need
A move from Kent to Italy is an import and needs to be declared. The documents are a numbered inventory with values, your codice fiscale, evidence of your Italian residence or your application for it, identification, and a declaration that the goods are used personal effects travelling with your change of residence.
The codice fiscale is the piece to obtain before anything else — an Italian consulate will issue one and the import is filed against it. Used household goods moving with a genuine residence transfer normally come in without duty, but that relief rests entirely on the paperwork being consistent with the load. Ours is built from the survey inventory so the two always match.
Practical things worth doing early
Photograph the delivery access — the street, the entrance, the stairs, the lift if there is one. Find out whether your building or comune restricts moving hours. If the property is mid-renovation, be honest with us about how mid; delivering a houseful of furniture into a room without a floor helps nobody.
Considering more than one country? The European removals hub sets out how the four routes compare, and France shares the first half of this drive.
Moving to Italy — the practical questions
How do you get a removal van from Gillingham to Italy?
Out on the M2 and M20, across the Channel, then down through France. From there it is either the Mont Blanc tunnel into the Aosta valley, the Fréjus tunnel towards Turin, or the coast road through Ventimiglia into Liguria. Which one depends on your destination, the season and the vehicle.
Do the Alpine tunnels close?
They can, for weather or maintenance, and the coast route via Ventimiglia is the usual alternative. It is longer but it is never shut for snow. We plan the crossing when the load is booked and check it again before the vehicle leaves.
What does Italian customs want to see?
A detailed inventory, your codice fiscale, proof of your Italian residence or the residence application, and a customs declaration. Italy also expects a declaration that the goods are used personal effects being moved with you rather than imported for sale.
Do I need a codice fiscale before the move?
Yes, in practice. It is Italy's tax identification number and the import is filed against it. You can obtain one from an Italian consulate before you travel — do that early rather than after you arrive.
Can you deliver into a historic centre?
Not with a large vehicle, usually. Many Italian centri storici are ZTL — restricted traffic zones — with permits, time windows and cameras. We arrange access where a permit is possible and shuttle in with a small van where it is not. Send us the address early so we can check.
We are renovating and the house is not finished. Can you still deliver?
Yes, but tell us. Delivering furniture into a building site needs different protection and sometimes a different order of unloading. If the property is not ready at all, storage in the UK until it is tends to be the cheaper answer.
What about a scooter or a motorbike?
A motorbike can travel with the load if the fuel is drained and the battery disconnected, and the documentation lists it separately. Cars go by dedicated vehicle transport, not with us.
Is Italy more expensive to move to than France?
It is further and the Alpine crossing adds cost, so generally yes for the same volume. The bigger variable is the delivery end — a ground-floor apartment in Milan and a hilltop house in Umbria with a hundred metres of track are very different jobs.
Planning a move to Italy?
Send both addresses and a rough inventory. We will check the routing and the delivery access before we quote.