shipping to italy
 

Hi! I need to ship some personal goods from NJ, United States to Pisa, Italy ( clothes, books, toys etc.). What company from your experience is reliable, affordable and quick? I know I am asking for too much right? Thanks!!

All I can say is that I just received an art object from Venice (I know, opposite direction but whatever) which was shipped by DHL and the whole thing including Customs clearance, was seamless and very, VERY well done.

I suspect there are cheaper ways and how soon does the stuff have to BE there anyway?

I am moving to Pisa in about two weeks. I would love it to be there as soon as possible. Thanks for your input!

Why does it need to be there before you are?

It really depends on how much stuff you are planning to ship and what your definition of "affordable" means.

Fed-Ex, DHL, UPS all have multiple classes of delivery service ranging from over-night to "several days" delivery. The rate you'll pay will depend on size and weight of your package and the requested delivery time.

You can also send packages via the USPS - they too have a variety of delivery times that vary from about 2 days to several weeks. Like the others mentioned above, rates are based on size and weight of package and expected delivery date.

For what it is worth, we ship items internationally via USPS (using Priority Mail) multiple times a year. Delivery time is usually 7 to 10 days.

All of the services are "reliable and can be "quick" if you are willing to pay the price. Whether you find any of the above to be "affordable" depends on how much you can "afford".

As usual, you get what you PAY for (hopefully).

We used FedEx. But you have to be very careful about how you do the paperwork, since if it isn't clear what's in the box it will get held up in Customs.

You need to carefully label what is in the box as Personal property, used clothes, books and whatever else and say it has zero value. And you can't insure the items. If you do they will assume the label is incorrect and whoever you send it to will have to come and deal with customs and possibly pay a large fee.

Our FedEx packages were delivered in 3 to 4 days, except for one that somehow lost it's label and took us almost a month to retrieve from Customs. This is NOT cheap.

Only you can decide on weight, value, speed and cost.

Since you are moving to Pisa, I'll assume you are flying there yourself?

(besides shipping) I would look into what it costs to take extra baggage on your flight. In some cases and for some items this might be the better method to get your stuff there in a timely fashion with least hassle.

It will likely cost less to pay for excess luggage than to ship a lot of stuff.

You only mention 'you' so would assume you are solo. So I am curious why toys? Also -- just how many books do you want to send - and are they needed for school ? Otherwise books are REALLY heavy and do you REALLY need to haul them to Italy?

I also wouldn't take a huge amount of clothing. A couple of large suitcases full would be more than enough for most people. You probably won't have as much closet/storage space in you Italian apartment as you do at home.

There are some really cheap sources for general household goods in Europe.