Moving to Rome from the UK means swapping drizzle for a city that has been lived in for nearly three thousand years. It also means tighter deadlines than most people expect — Italy gives you eight days to start your residence paperwork — plus customs clearance for your belongings and a historic centre that removal lorries cannot simply drive into. Here are seven practical tips.
1. Apply for your permesso di soggiorno within eight days
UK nationals now need a visa to live in Italy, and once you arrive you must apply for a residence permit — the permesso di soggiorno — within eight days. That is a genuinely short window, so know before you fly where your nearest post office with a Sportello Amico counter is, and have your documents ready. The GOV.UK guide to living in Italy explains the routes and links through to the Italian police service’s own guidance.
2. Get your codice fiscale early — nothing works without it
The codice fiscale is Italy’s tax code, and you will be asked for it constantly: renting a flat, opening a bank account, setting up a phone contract, registering with a doctor. You can apply through an Italian consulate before you leave the UK, which is far less stressful than queuing at an Agenzia delle Entrate office in your first week. Do this one first and the rest of the admin gets noticeably easier.
3. Use the customs relief for your household goods
Because the UK is outside the EU, your belongings go through Italian customs when you move. The relief for people transferring their main home is an EU-wide one, so the conditions mirror those elsewhere in the bloc: you need to have had your normal residence outside the EU for at least 12 months, the items must have been in your possession and use for roughly six months, and you need a detailed, dated and signed inventory. Your goods can arrive in more than one load, and there are restrictions on selling or lending them for a period after clearance. Alcohol, tobacco and commercial vehicles are excluded. Check the current detail with Italian Customs (Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli).
MoveDay Removals prepares the inventory and handles the clearance through our customs removals service, so your shipment is not the one sitting at the border waiting for a missing signature.
4. Check whether your new address is inside a ZTL
Rome’s historic centre is covered by limited traffic zones — zone a traffico limitato — enforced by camera, and the fines arrive by post months later. A removal lorry needs a permit from the comune to enter, and it has to be arranged in advance. Tell your removal company your exact address as early as you can, because if the permit is not possible they will need to plan a smaller shuttle vehicle from a legal parking point instead.
5. Measure the staircase, and expect no lift
Roman blocks of flats are often centuries old. Stairwells are narrow, turn tightly, and the lift — if there is one — may be a two-person cage that will not take a wardrobe. Measure your largest furniture and the tightest turn on the stairs before you book, and send photographs with your quote request. An external hoist is a normal solution in Italian cities and is much cheaper than finding out on the day.
6. Register your residency and sign up with the health service
Once your residence permit comes through and you are staying longer than three months, register your residency with your local council’s registry office — the Anagrafe. You should also register with Italy’s national health service, the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, which is how you get a family doctor and a health card. The GOV.UK healthcare in Italy guidance sets out who can register and on what basis.
7. Exchange your driving licence within 12 months
If you become resident in Italy, you can drive on your UK licence for 12 months. After that it needs exchanging for an Italian one, and for licences issued after Brexit that can mean sitting Italian theory and practical tests rather than a straight swap. Start the process early rather than in month eleven, and factor in that Rome is a city where many residents happily never drive at all.
Planning a move to Rome? Get a free quote from MoveDay Removals — we handle the transport, the inventory and the customs clearance.