Country page · Italy

Italy

Milan · the lakes · Florence and Rome

Italian moves from Putney divide into three patterns. The Milan finance or fashion-corridor professional relocation. The Italian-lakes family lifestyle move — Como or Maggiore, picked for the lake-towns school accessibility and the practical commute to Milan if one partner is still working. The Florence or Rome cultural-considered move, often pre-retirement, often with art or instruments in the consignment.

What this page is not is the rural-Tuscany retirement move (Sevenoaks and Somerset territory) or the southern-Italy community-roots return (Romford). Both are well-served by sister network sites and we will refer honestly if your move is one of theirs.

The Putney → Italy moves we run share a register: cosmopolitan urban or lakeside-cosmopolitan, family-stage or career-stage moves, often with art or instruments declared at survey, often with a Milanese or Roman destination address that requires careful consignment timing.

The Putney → Italy pattern

Three moves we run, three stories that fit.

Each pattern is a real shape we have moved households along — survey-tested timing, destination-tested access.

Milan finance and fashion-corridor relocations

Milan is the Italian destination most often paired with banking, fund-management, fashion-house, and design-studio career moves. The destination property is usually in the centre — Brera, Porta Nuova, Porta Romana — and Milan central addresses share Paris's reality of fifth-floor flats with limited or no service-lift access. We survey the Putney end and request the Milan address details at quote stage so the destination crew brief is set up accurately before the consignment leaves.

Italian-lakes pre-school and school-age family moves

Como, Maggiore, Garda. The pre-school family pattern is the renovated lakeside village house with the international school in Milan reachable in the working day; the school-age family pattern is the move timed to coincide with the Italian school year (settembre) and the international-school admissions calendar. The lake-town village access is often narrow stone-street with shuttle-vehicle requirement on the destination side — we plan for it.

Florence and Rome cultural-considered moves

Often pre-retirement, often with established cultural connections (art, music, academia), often with the consignment including artwork or instruments declared at higher cover. The Florence destination side is centro-storico narrow-street access; the Rome destination side is often a Trastevere, Monti, or Centro Storico apartment with stairs and access challenges. Survey covers both ends. Considered timing, not rushed.

Regions covered

Destinations within Italy we move to from SW London.

Milan and Lombardy — Brera, Porta Nuova, Porta Romana, Monza commuter belt
Italian lakes — Como, Maggiore, Garda, Lugano (Swiss-Italian border)
Florence and surrounding Tuscan urban — not the rural-villa belt
Rome — Centro Storico, Trastevere, Monti, Parioli
Turin and the Piedmont corporate corridor
Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna university corridor

What you will need

For the customs side and the residency-evidence pack.

Codice fiscale (Italian tax code) — obtainable in advance through the Italian consulate in London
Italian destination address proof (purchase contract or rental agreement)
Recent UK address proof
Detailed household inventory — prepared at survey
Specialist documentation if shipping high-value artwork

Mid-career life stages we work with

Who moves to Italy from Putney.

Pre-school family lifestyle

Couples in their thirties — partnered, often with a baby or pre-school-age child — making the lifestyle move before the family geography settles into a school catchment. Provence, the Italian lakes, Cascais, Mallorca-interior. Considered timing, often hand-in-hand with one partner moving to partial-remote work.

Banking, finance and tech corporate relocation

The career-driven mid-life move. Paris, Milan, Madrid, Lisbon for the role; central-city destination property typically with the corporate side handling the housing and visa; our side runs the household.

School-age family considered move

Family with primary or early-secondary children making the move before secondary commitments lock in. The school admissions calendar is the gating constraint. Cascais (international school), Milan and Madrid (international schools), Paris and Lisbon (international or bilingual schools). Considered, paced, well-planned.

Pre-retirement, still working

Late-career professional household making the move while one or both partners are still working — partially or fully remote, often with the destination property bought over years of holidaying and now becoming the primary address. Florence, Rome, the Italian lakes, the Côte d'Azur, the Portuguese coast, central Madrid.

Customs and paperwork

How the Italy customs side works.

ToR relief applies — household goods cross duty-free under the standard EU transfer-of-residence framework. We file the UK-side ToR1 and the Italian Agenzia delle Dogane declaration on your behalf.
Italian customs ask for codice fiscale (Italian tax code) on the declaration — straightforward to obtain through the Italian consulate or through your destination-side lawyer / commercialista, and required before the consignment lands.
For artwork in the consignment: items with significant cultural value (typically pieces over 70 years old or by listed Italian artists) may require an export licence from the UK side and an import declaration at the Italian end. We flag this at survey and refer to a specialist art-shipping firm where the rules apply.
Vehicle import: as for France, the UK-registered car qualifies for ToR. Italian re-registration is via the local Motorizzazione Civile.

Route from SW15 to Italy — schematic.

Italy testimonials

From Putney households who made the move.

We wanted the lakes move before the family arrived and the geography settled in. The Putney team understood the practical reality — Cernobbio village access is narrow, the destination property is mid-renovation, the customs paperwork needed codice fiscale in hand. Considered survey, paced delivery, no surprises. The shuttle vehicle on the destination side was planned and not improvised.

The Ashbridge family

Pre-children couple, design and academia

West Putney → Lake Como — Cernobbio

Milan central addresses are a particular kind of complicated — fifth-floor walkup, narrow staircase, twentieth-century furniture that the previous removals firm we used twenty years ago managed to damage. The Putney crew briefed the destination team properly, packed the cabinet pieces in protective crating, and the unload was paced. Considered, professional, no salesmanship. The way we would expect.

The Whitelaw-Beresford household

Fund-management professional, partner in publishing

Putney Heath → Milan — Brera

Frequent Italy-specific questions

The things people ask before a Italy move.

We are moving to Milan for a fund-management role. The flat is in Brera. Anything specific?

Brera, Porta Nuova, and the central Milan addresses are typically fifth-floor period apartments without service-lift access. We brief the destination crew on this from the survey stage so the unload sequence and crew sizing fits the access. The Milan customs process is straightforward via the standard ToR framework with codice fiscale on file.

Our Como move includes a Steinway grand. How do you handle it?

Itemised at survey, declared at higher cover, packed in protective crating by our crew, same vehicle door to door. The Como destination delivery often requires a shuttle vehicle for the final lakeside-village leg — we survey both ends and the move plan documents the shuttle if needed.

Italian school year starts in September. Can we time the move to that?

Yes. The most common timing for Putney → Italian-lakes family moves is late July or August load-out, with the consignment landing and unloading before the Italian school year starts. We work the customs clearance into that timeline. International-school admissions in Milan often have their own deadlines — we work around those rather than the other way around.

Our Florence move includes some old family paintings. Export issue?

Possibly — pieces over 70 years old or by listed artists trigger UK export-licence requirements. We flag this at survey and refer to a specialist art-shipping firm to handle the cultural-property side; the household side runs through us as normal.

Other corridors we run

The other destinations on the network.

Country page · France

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