We are travling to italy and greece, leaving next week. We had looked forward to purchasing some wine in tuscany and bringing it home, but from all I have read, the shipping makes it both expensive and kind of a hassle. We visit Tuscany during the first few days of our trip, so don't want to carry on the wine we buy for the rest of the journey through italy and to/from greece. we were thinking of trying to send it from the winery back to the hotel we are staying in our last night in rome and then just carrying it on home from there....any thoughts on shipping within italy? time frame, costs, hassle, etc.? Thanks for any advice - it's our first trip to europe and we are a little clueless!

SCR,
We just had some wine shipped from the CT and the shipping cost was more than the wine and it will be 4-6 weeks before we even see it. We pondered for a moment, and then said what the heck. It'll be fun when it finally shows up and we'll have forgotten about the charges. I couldn't see us hauling that wine around, even if it was just onto the airplane. Take the plunge and pay the shipping to your home. You don't want the added hassle.

I carried a case plus back from Tuscany. Had the case of wine packaged in a special styrofoam packaging and checked it with my baggage back to the States. You're allowed 2 checked bags.

I hand carried an additional 6-8 bottles in my backpack onto the airplane.

I can't exactly remember what the shipping costs for a case would be, but the figure of 120 Euros sticks in my mind.

I looked into shipping wine from Italy and the approximate cost was $14/bottle and you had to buy 6 or 12 bottles if you were shipping. I only asked at one place so I don't know if this was a normal cost. It was enough to deter me from shipping. I did carry 6 bottles in my carryon bag.

Budman - I've not heard of the special styrofoam boxes - you can check these boxes? After learning the hard way that you don't put a bottle of wine in your checked suitcase, I have never attempted it again. Does this box prevent them from bursting open? thanks!

Actually, they were cardboard boxes with styrofoam sleeves. The winery used the boxes for shipping, so I figured it would be safe with my checked baggage.

Since I purchased the wine from them, they didn't charge for the box. I would guess you could purchase one for 15-20 Euros.

Desert Sue, I hope you don't also have to pay to retrieve your wine once it arrives here. There are some horror stories about major additional costs on other posts.

We brought back about 12 bottles, buying a few in each place. I brought small rolls of bubble wrap and we had an extra small rolling suit case. It worked well.

Isn't there a limit as to how many bottles of wine that one can bring back into the US? I thought, but may be wrong, it was something like a limit of two bottles per person (assuming the traveller is over the age of 21).

Ooops, guess not, at least for CA residents. CA allows up to 60 liters (5 cases) for CA residents returning from overseas as long as the alcohol is shipped via ship or airlines. Intersesting, never knew that. Cin,cin!

Hmm, as long as shipped by ship or airlines...is there any other way to get the wine to CA? LOL!

The duty on still wine is peanuts. It isn't worth the paperwork and time to stop you and charge you customs for 15-20 bottles of wine.

Sorry budman, I don't understand what you are trying to say. Is it worth it or is it not? Thanks.

Yes, worth it to carry on vice ship it.

Definately worth carrying it with you! We claimed every single bottle and they didn't bat an eye or mention duty.

Thanks for all the advice on shipping back to the US ...I guess we'll see what it looks like when we are there.

I was also wondering about shipping it back to rome to pick up before we leave (we would carry it on the plane home, but then we wouldn't have to carry it for our whole trip). Has anyone tried shipping things from say, Siena to Rome? Time frame, cost, hassle factor...any advice would be appreciated. thanks!

For the customs issue... I've brought wine back from Canada - not quite Italy, but still the same US rules for how much you can have.

The way it was explained to me was: The USA figures the duty on the percentage of alcohol in each bottle. Meaning if you bought 4 different kinds of wine, they would have to have to run four different sets of forms for the percentage of each wine. They think that is too much work, so they let you through with more wine than the 'legal' limit.

travelphile, that's a new one on me, and I've been bringing back alcohol from Europe for years. Still wines were one flat fee, sparkling wines were a separate fee, and spirits (scotch/whiskey/gin and the like) were a separate fee. I've never heard anything about the % of alcohol content.

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