Shipping to Italy

[Former_Member]

There seems to be a decent amount of international team members, so I'm hoping to get help with a question: Can Americans not ship anything that's been sewn to Italy?

I went to ship two scarves from my other shop, Florida Scarf, to Italy and the post office said no. I called USPS and they said the same thing. Has anyone else had an issue with this?

[HopscotchCouture]

I have shipped to Italy a couple of times, with UPS, no problems at all. One was shipped a few days ago. Not sure why the post office doesn't do it.

[QuirkyUniverse]

Italy is really strict about what they will allow. You may want to look up their customs information, if it's any kind of fashion or jewelry they pretty much won't accept it.

[Former_Member]

Some countries have restrictions on certain types of items that might affect their local economies. You can do a Google search on the topic, but from what you've said, Italy is not accepting clothing. Is it possible for you to mark the item as a "gift" on the customs form? It might qualify as one if you are a pretty small-scale seller.

[LaurasLastDitch]

Italy won't allow musical instruments, either.

[Former_Member]

I never had any problems with mailing/shipping something to Italy. The only problem was the long time it took for packages to arrive or for me to recieve them. But then again, I live right next to it, not overseas..

[LaurasLastDitch]

I have had packages to Italy take a very long time before. It always scares me a little to ship there.

[RainGirlDesigns]

There was a thread in the business or site help one day about this. Several members from Italy said they hadn't had issues getting things. One said she had even called Italian customs and they didn't know why USPS had that list or where it came from.

[ErinJPhotos]

This is the thread that gothic is referring to, I think.

http://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/8907301/

[RetroChalet]

Hmmmm wonder what this is all about.

[Former_Member]

Thanks for all of your help, and thanks for the link. In this case my buyer is from Canada, which I think complicates the situation even more. We have decided that I will mail them to Canada and she will mail them to Italy. I feel sorry that she will pay twice for shipping. I guess the world is not as small as I thought :)

[Former_Member]

http://www.agenziadogane.it/wps/wcm/connect/Internet/ee/
This is the Italian Customs website. Please feel free to send an email to them and ask if it is possible or not to send your item.
USPS list of items is very backdated.