A telephone number
The listing asks for a local number for the addressee on a street address and requires one on a post office box address. Leave it off a box address and the item is short of a stated requirement before it sails.
Italy
Shipping to Italy from the United States
Italy keeps the longest and strangest prohibition list of any large European destination, and most of it is groceries. Roasted coffee, saffron, nutmeg, vanilla and salt are all named on it. Checking the contents against that list is the first move on this lane, ahead of the box, the product and the postage, because it is the check that decides whether the shipment happens at all.
Country listing, datedProhibitions in fullCrossing priced by a person
Contents first
On this lane what is inside the box rules out more shipments than what it weighs.
Start with the pantry, not the postage
A large share of the parcels Americans want to send to Italy are food, and Italy's postal prohibition list reads like an inventory of a kitchen cupboard. Roasted or ground coffee and its substitutes, and roasted chicory. Saffron. Nutmeg and vanilla. Sea salt and rock salt. Salted and smoked meats. Saccharine products. Tobacco.
None of that is hazardous and none of it is contraband anywhere else on this site. It is on the list, the list is what an acceptance clerk and an Italian customs officer work from, and a care package assembled from an American supermarket without reading it will contain at least one prohibited item.
A second list runs alongside the food and has nothing to do with eating. Albums of photographs, postcards and stamps. Artificial flowers and fruits. Bells and musical instruments. Clocks. Coral. Hair products. Leather goods. Lighters. Perfumery goods. Playing cards. Treated skins and furs. Typewriter ribbons. Exposed photographic films. Lithium batteries. Live animals, plants and bees. Ether and chloroform. Compound medicaments. Arms and weapons. Radioactive materials. Human remains, with cremated remains excepted.
Read together the two lists rule out most of what a gift shop sells. Anyone posting a leather handbag, a wall clock, a bottle of scent or a deck of cards to an Italian address is posting something the listing names.
Valuables travel one way only
Where the food list is quirky, this rule is precise and it removes the choice. The listing reads: “Coins; bank notes; currency notes (paper money); traveler's checks; jewelry; and other precious or valuable articles must be enclosed in an insured Priority Mail International parcel in order to be mailable to addressees in Italy.”
That is a positive requirement rather than a prohibition. The item is admissible, and it is admissible in exactly one product. Sending a ring in a padded envelope on the lightweight package product is not a cheaper version of the same shipment; it is a shipment Italy does not accept.
The contrast with the country next door is worth holding on to. Germany refuses insured postal items once the declared value passes a ceiling, which pushes valuables off the postal network entirely, while Italy requires the insured product for the same category of contents. Two founding members of the same customs union, opposite instructions, and no way to satisfy both with one procedure. The German rule is set out on its own page.
Two lines on the paperwork that get missed
An EORI number
The customs declaration is to carry the Economic Operator Registration and Identification number where one has been assigned. A business recipient in Italy has one; a private recipient does not, and the field stays empty.
Country of origin
The declaration has to state where the goods were made, not where the parcel was posted. An item made in Vietnam and mailed from New Jersey is Vietnamese on the form.
Two more requirements sit above those. A shipment containing books has to bear PS Form 2976 whatever else is on it. And duplicate invoices go with every commercial Priority Mail International parcel regardless of value, and with a personal shipment once the declared value reaches USD 300.
Ceilings, forms and the services Italy does not offer
| Product | Weight ceiling | Size ceiling | Customs paperwork |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-Class Package International Service | 4 lb | Small packet limits per the international manual | PS Form 2976 |
| Priority Mail International | 66 lb | 60 in long, 108 in length plus girth | PS Form 2976-A inside PS Form 2976-E |
| Priority Mail Express International | 66 lb | 60 in long, 108 in length plus girth | PS Form 2976-B inside PS Form 2976-E |
| First-Class Mail International | 3.5 oz letters and postcards, 15.994 oz large envelopes | Letter and flat limits | None, unless otherwise required |
| Airmail M-bags | 66 lb | One direct sack to one addressee | PS Form 2976 |
| “Global Express Guaranteed” | Listed as suspended since September 29, 2024 | — | Not applicable while suspended |
M-bags being available to Italy is a genuine saving on printed matter, since the sack rate exists for exactly the case of a single addressee receiving a quantity of books or paper. It is one of the few places where Italy is the easier of the two large southern and central European markets to serve by post.
The extra services split into what Italy takes and what it does not. Certificate of Mailing, Registered Mail and Return Receipt are listed as available, with Return Receipt sold only alongside Registered Mail and the maximum indemnity on Registered Mail set at USD 40.20. Restricted Delivery, international postal money orders and international reply coupons are listed as not available. So is USPS Delivered Duty Paid, and that last absence has a practical consequence: there is no postal route to settle the recipient's customs charges in advance, so whatever Italian customs assesses is collected from them at delivery.
What Italian customs collects
Italy's own listing records the end of the small-parcel escape: the exemption from value added tax on low-value consignments was abolished on 1 July 2021. Tax is assessed from the first cent of declared value, and because the postal prepayment service is not offered here, it is assessed against the person opening the box.
On top of that sits the flat three-euro duty the European Union began charging on 1 July 2026 on low-value distance sales, which applies in Italy exactly as it does in every other member state. The mechanism, the 150 euro ceiling and the 2028 end date are set out on our Europe page. A private parcel between two people is not a distance sale, so that particular charge is written for sellers rather than for a birthday box.
Who prices an Italian shipment
Labels sold at checkout here are United States domestic, so an Italian leg is outside what this site sells and no Italian figure appears anywhere above. Domestic parcels come back priced from the calculator in about a minute. For the crossing, send the carton dimensions, the weight, the contents and the Italian address through freight review, and somebody sits down with it and returns a service, a set of forms and a price.
Have the contents settled before that conversation starts. On this lane the question of what is in the box decides more than the question of how heavy it is, and a list checked against the prohibitions above saves the whole exercise.
Common questions
Can coffee be mailed to Italy?
No. Roasted or ground coffee and its substitutes, and roasted chicory, are on Italy's prohibited list, and so are saffron, nutmeg, vanilla, sea salt and rock salt. A food parcel assembled without checking the list will usually contain one of them.
Does an Italian address need a telephone number?
The listing asks for a local number for the addressee when the item goes to a street address and requires one when it goes to a post office box. The customs declaration also carries an EORI number where the recipient has been assigned one.
How should jewelry be sent to Italy?
Inside an insured Priority Mail International parcel and no other way. The listing makes that the only mailable route for coins, bank notes, traveler's checks, jewelry and other precious or valuable articles.
What is the heaviest parcel Italy accepts by mail?
66 lb on both Priority Mail International and Priority Mail Express International, each capped at 60 inches long and 108 inches of length plus girth. Airmail M-bags are available to Italy at the same 66 lb.
Can Italian customs charges be prepaid by the sender?
Not through the post. USPS Delivered Duty Paid is listed as not available to Italy, so duty and tax are collected from the recipient on delivery rather than settled when the label is bought.
Where these rules come from
- USPS, Individual Country Listing for Italy, pe.usps.com/text/imm/il_008.htm — prohibitions, the insured-parcel requirement for valuables, the telephone and EORI observations, product ceilings, customs forms, extra services and the indemnity limit. Read 2026-08-07.
- USPS, International Service Alerts — read to verify that Italian service carries no posted suspension. Read 2026-08-07.
- European Commission, Taxation and Customs Union, temporary flat fee on low-value imports — the amount, the 150 euro ceiling, the start date and the 2028 expiry. Read 2026-08-07.
Prohibition lists are edited quietly and this one is long enough that a single line matters. Take the above as the state of the listing on 2026-08-07 and check the entry covering your own contents before the box is sealed.