An Italian move for the long-established household. Tuscan hill towns, Umbrian villages, the rural north.
Most of our Somerset → Italy moves are not to Rome or Milan. They are to a stone farmhouse in the hills above Lucca, a restored townhouse in Todi or Spoleto, a long-loved second home in a Chianti village. Established Somerset families, sometimes with grown children, making a planned move into rural Italy. Considered, written, slow.
Plate II · Italy
Somerset and rural Italy have a particular kinship. The Mendip villages, the Levels, the Quantocks — the slow-rolling pace of Somerset rural life translates almost directly to a Tuscan hill town or a stone village in Umbria. Many of our Somerset → Italy customers have known the destination region for years: a holiday house held since the 1990s now becoming a primary residence, or a long-considered move from a Bath terrace to a Chianti farmhouse.
The route from the south-west has two practical shapes. Most consignments take the Channel road via Eurotunnel or Dover ferry, then south through France into Italy. For larger or longer-haul Tuscan moves a sea-container option from a UK port via Genoa is sometimes cleaner. We discuss both at survey and recommend the option that suits the load, the timing, and the destination access.
Italian customs is more procedural than France but well-understood. We file the UK-side ToR1 and the Italian-side declaration with the Agenzia delle Dogane. You provide the codice fiscale (Italian tax number — issued before the move at the consulate or post-arrival), residency-evidence pack, and the inventory we prepare from the survey. We respond to any Dogane queries directly on your behalf.
Established Somerset couple, often with grown children, moving from a Bath or Wells family home to a long-loved Tuscan or Umbrian property. Full-house dedicated consignment via the Channel road, customs handled at the Italian border, delivery to the village. Often involves managing the disposal of a much larger UK home — we work alongside the household clearance, not against it.
A property in Tuscany or rural northern Italy held for fifteen or twenty years as a second home is becoming the primary residence. The remaining UK-side items — the books, the studio, the furniture you cared about — make the final consignment. The Italian property already has the family's life in it; what travels is what closes the chapter.
Somerset professional in their late forties or fifties, moving from a Bath or Frome family home to a stone property in rural northern or central Italy. Remote-working setup goes with them; the move is built around the broadband-at-the-Italian-end and the studio sequencing. Considered, written-quoted, paced.
The corridor is national; the destinations cluster around the regions Somerset audiences actually move to. Rural over urban. Considered over fast.
Our service taxonomy is by life-stage rather than by route mode. Each stage has a particular sequencing and a particular pace.
The considered retirement move from a Somerset family home to a long-loved European country property. Often a downsize. Long planning horizon. Pace set by the destination property completion, not by our truck calendar.
Remote-working professional or established business owner moving from a Bath, Taunton, or Frome family home to rural France, Italy, Spain, or Portugal. Studio or working-property setup goes with them. The move is paced around broadband, studio sequencing, and the household together.
A long-owned European property — Dordogne stone cottage, Tuscan farmhouse, Alentejo working land, Alpujarras village house — becoming the principal residence after retirement or family-stage transition. The remaining Somerset-side items make the final consignment; the destination household already exists.
Substantially. A property already established as a household with a track record of use — water and electricity in your name, the codice fiscale on file at the comune, the AIRE registration recognised — makes the residency-evidence pack effectively pre-assembled. The customs side becomes confirmation rather than fresh application. Our role is the consignment-and-paperwork; the property side has already done much of the work.
Depends on the load size and the destination access. For most full-house Tuscan moves the Channel road is the simpler shape — direct, on a known timeline, customs at the Italian border. For larger or oversized consignments, or for destinations near a working Mediterranean port (Genoa, Naples), the sea-container option can be cost-effective at scale. We set both options out in the written quote with the trade-offs explained.
We avoid specific day-counts because they are misleading — clearance is faster when the documentation is clean and slower when something needs to be queried. The written move plan sets out the customs-clearance window as a process step with the contingency we have built in, and we keep you informed at each stage. The honest answer is: in our experience, clean documentation clears Italian customs without material delay; we plan the move so that customs sits inside the normal route schedule rather than sticking out as a risk.
Dordogne stone cottages, rural Brittany, the Languedoc countryside. A French move planned at your own pace.
Read the briefRural Andalusia, inland Spain, Extremadura, the slower coast. Countryside-Spanish-life moves.
Read the briefAlentejo, inland Algarve, the Silver Coast, central Portugal. Considered countryside moves.
Read the briefA surveyor will visit Somerset at your pace. Written quote, held in writing. No script.