Hello all -

After the wedding (August), I'm going to have my furnishings, that are valuable enough to warrant keeping, sent to Rome from San Francisco, California. Any recommendations on movers will be greatly appreciated.

Siate felici -
State bene - Rob

We used Bolliger International as Cristina recommended them highly. More expensive than others, but they got the job done with minimal stress for us (just watch you don't have any empty tissue boxes around or they'll get packed too!) They packed using LOTS of paper, handled ALL the paperwork and even got our stuff through duty-free when our certificate had expired. My only concern is that I haven't heard back from them on a claim about my patio furniture getting scraped up. I must follow up on that.

I had a great experience with Rainier. Price wise they were average.

Davide who is the Italian counterpart in Naples was very helpful regarding dealing with Customs. He explained everything and my things went through Customs no problem.

Doug Wiviott
Director, International Business Development
Rainier Overseas Movers, Inc.
PO Box 97004
Bellevue, WA. 98009
Toll free 800-426-9928 extn 220
Local 425-277-6000 extn 220
Fax 425-643-0448
WWW.RAINIEROS.COM

hi all, wondering if you could help me out with the low down on moving.

I am moving to Italy finally, and I am trying to evaluate what to bring and how to ship.

I mostly have books, clothes computers, memorabilia, pilates machine, very little furniture, which I could leave behind if they were to add considerably to the cost.

I will do my own packing (am i allowed to with customs?) and will bring it to a port if I need to.

We will be shipping from Newark/Elizabeth NJ to Palermo.

questions:
[LIST]

do I ship by weight or volume?

is it ever a good idea to ship via post office? -- ie at what amount of weight does it make sense to ship via post?

is it ever possible to ship in a portion of a container?

how much can I put into one container?

costs for containers

I did fill out the estimate forms on Bollinger's site and was not able to get any info. I kind of bristle at the question: how many rooms am I moving.... I can't really look at it like that.

so, any help or advice from my fellow expats who have already made the voyage....

thanks!

www.sicilianaintraining.blogspot.com

siciliana in training,

Here is a previous posting that may answer some of your questions, Shipping to Italy.

My wife and I were very satisfied with Tober and EuroUSA. However, as Mela pointed out in her research both companies have had complaints made against them.

To recap your concerns:

• We shipped by volume because it was only 41 boxes including a Weber BBQ grill
• I shipped 2 boxes by USPS but was hit with a €30 customs charge, even tho, the customs declaration stated used men's clothing and zero value. If you are only shipping a few boxes, USPS is a good way to go. Please note: Once the box/boxes get into the Italian postal system, it is next to impossible to track them.
• Since we only had 41 boxes, our items were placed into a container with other clients items
• There are 2 sizes of containers: 24' and 40'. Since we used a UPAKWESHIP option, we only know that our boxes were in a part of a container but do not know the size.
• The cost of a container varies by company

A few other things you should know:

• My wife is a dual citizen and we did not pay any customs duty on the items we shipped via Tober and EuroUSA
• All our boxes were delivered to where we rented a house in Tuscany by an Italian company, Giovaruscio Trasporti e Traslochi. We were very satisfied with their service and communication with us.
• We labeled each box with numbers (1 - 41) and had contact information, our Italian address and alternate phone numbers on each box.
• We were very organized and kept detailed information about the shipment.

We moved ourselves to Italy and it was relatively painless. Other folks have not been as lucky. Our cost were under $3,000 plus the cost of a U-Haul rental to take the boxes to the freight forwarder company used by Tober.

If you or Robert Bragg have any more questions, please feel free to post you questions.

Ciao, Ben

We moved from Sacramento, Ca to Trento Italy 2 years ago and used Sterling International. We were very pleased with their service. You can contact Steve Heck, Toll free 866.232.2969.

Monica

If you have quite a few boxes I would not use the Postal service.

I had a crate that was consolidated into a container coming to Naples. I did not have enough to fill a container. It wasn't cheap but I wouldn't have saved that much shipping boxes myself and I had no time to pack my own things.

My things arrived in perfect condition. None of my dishes or glasses were broken.

Also you can get hit with crazy customs fees on the other end when you ship boxes. Because I started my residency process the minute I landed in Rome I was able to save hundreds of Euros in Custom/taxes.

Good luck with your move.

I used Bolliger as well - We moved in November NYC-Florence. We called them for a quote and they came by our apt to evaluate. They quoted us $7,000 for our 2 bedroom apt, only large items were a bed frame and small DWR futon, the rest was all boxable(clothes, toiletries, linens, kitchen stuff).
Day of the move they ended up packing up a total of 120 boxes (yes including a TON of paper!)and the total came to 10,000. We were not happy about that, but i did feel they were trustworthy (means alot when shipping your life over!) Also they were on time with packing, and delivery of the goods.

Rachel

Thanks so much everyone for the information. I really appreciate it. I think I might need to really reevaluate how much I want to take with me.

Guess I will have to start thinking about all this as a new start in a big way, maybe it's time to start scanning my cookbooks at least.

Thanks!