Peckham → Italy
SE15 to Italy
Fewer households go this way, and the ones that do are usually moving into a flat in a city that restricts where a lorry may go. Both halves of that need planning before anything is loaded.
The restricted-zone question
Nearly every Italian city of any age restricts traffic in its historic centre, enforced by camera and fined automatically. If your new address is inside one — and in central Florence, Bologna, Siena or Rome it very likely is — the delivery needs a permit from the comune arranged in advance, or a transfer to a smaller permitted vehicle.
We check the exact address against the zone before anything is loaded in Peckham, because neither option can be organised on the morning.
Two routes
Over the Alps for Turin, Milan and the lakes — through Mont Blanc into the Aosta valley or Fréjus into Turin. Toll tunnels with vehicle restrictions, and both can close in bad weather.
Round the coast for Tuscany, Umbria, Rome and the south — down the French Mediterranean, across at Ventimiglia, then the A10 to Genoa and the A1 south.
Codice fiscale first
Apply through the consulate before you go. Nothing else in the Italian process works without it — not the lease, not the residency registration, not a clean customs entry.
After that: proof of the Italian address, the iscrizione anagrafica at the comune, and the inventory itemised and valued in Italian. Italy checks documentation more closely than France or Spain, which is a reason to start earlier rather than a reason to worry.
Flat-sized loads on a long route
Most Peckham-to-Italy moves are a flat rather than a household, which makes a shared vehicle the sensible default: you pay for your share, and on a run this long the saving is real.
The exception is a load with instruments, art or a serious record collection in it — those want crating, careful valuation on the inventory, and sometimes a dedicated vehicle so they are handled once.
Renovations
A good share of Italian moves attach to a flat or a house still being worked on. Hold the load in store here until the floors are finished and there is a door that locks — it is cheaper than replacing furniture that spent a month under plaster dust.
France covers the first part of both Italian routes.
Worth knowing
Peckham to Italy, before you commit
What is a ZTL and will it affect us?
A camera-enforced restricted zone over the historic centre of most Italian cities, with automatic fines for unauthorised vehicles. If your new address is central in Florence, Bologna, Siena or Rome, then yes — it needs a comune permit arranged in advance or a transfer to a permitted smaller vehicle.
Which route does the vehicle take?
North — Milan, Turin, the lakes — goes through the Alps via Mont Blanc or Fréjus. Tuscany, Rome and the south usually go down the French coast and cross at Ventimiglia instead: longer on the map, more dependable in practice.
What paperwork does Italy want?
The codice fiscale first, applied for through the consulate before you go, because nothing else works without it. Then proof of the Italian address, residency registration at the comune, and an itemised, valued inventory in Italian signed by you.
Our load is a one-bed flat. Worth a whole lorry?
Usually not. A shared load going the same way costs less and, on a route this long, the flexibility is worth more than the fixed date for most people moving a flat.
We are moving into a place that is being renovated.
Then hold the load here. Furniture delivered into a building site gets ruined, and Italian renovations overrun exactly as SE15 ones do. Storage in London until the floors are finished is nearly always the better answer.
Do Italian flats have lifts?
Often, and often built for two people and a briefcase. The staircases in older buildings are narrow with tight turns — which, if you have moved in and out of Peckham conversions, will feel entirely familiar.
Can you handle instruments, art and records?
All three travel regularly and all three want proper crating rather than blankets. Say what there is at survey so the materials and the crew are right, and so the inventory values them correctly.
Send the exact address. We'll check the zone.
Whether your street is inside a restricted zone changes the vehicle, the permit and the delivery method. It is the first thing we look up.