Extraordinary Packages

After living abroad for any real length of time, the need to send and bring items from the US to Italy becomes necessary. We all have this story. My first special one was a box full of expensive watercolor paints that I sent myself from home to my new temporary home in Rome for my study year abroad. I had sent the box to my former Italian teacher to make sure that if it arrived earlier than me, there wouldn't be a problem receiving it. At that time, we sent via ship and it took 2/3 months for a package to get to its destination this way. We did it to save about 2/3 of the cost of express courrier. But I mistakenly declared on the mailing slip what I thought was the authentic value of the paints, which was a high value. Why was that a problem? Because when they got to Italy, the addressee had to pay taxes and handling fees based on that large sum of money. When she alluded to having paid something, she refused to let me know how much so I couldn't reimburse her. It was a typical Italian "host" gesture. And as a 20-year-old American, I had no idea how to insist or understand what the money paid could actually have been. I just didn't have the experience yet.

Then there was the time I needed to travel from Italy to the US with a wooden box with lighting and plexiglass slabs, 2 of which were filled with water. It was a sculpture/artist book that I was getting ready to present to US gallerists and collectors. It weighed a lot and required an excellent packaging job to make the flight in-tact and undamaged. It was also 2003. When I stopped over in Vienna, the Austrian police had me come out to their handling area on the other side of the airport, holding up the flight, while they made me unwrap everything to show them that it wasn't a bomb. It was a miracle that they believed I was an innocent American travelling with a strange sculpture and they also had the patience to help me carefully rewrap each piece of my sculpture, further holding up the flight, so that it could travel safely to its destination.

Fast forward to 2012. Recently a new art project has demanded another important package to get to Italy. This time it's large sheets of handmade paper with deckled edges. I had to figure out a way to package the paper so that it would travel and not damage its edges, which are one of the best parts about the handmade paper making process. I was able to accomplish this with the help of a UPS shipping shop. But I already had too much to carry to bring it to Italy myself. So my father was given the assignment of travelling with the package when he recently visited. In order to do that successfully, there was still one piece missing to the packaging process. A handle had to be attached to the large, fairly heavy and awkward package. UPS couldn't help us when I was in their shop and time ran out for my own stay in the US. I left without making a handle, which I had learned to make out of string as a person living in Venice. In that city, you must carry everything so you learn how to make handles for all kinds of boxes.

In the end my mother made a handle. But not just a handle. She made a sort of vest out of denim for the package and then inserted a real plastic handle into the sheath.

I didn't want to open the package until absolutely necessary because everything was so "safe" inside the denim wrap, tape and cardboard. So the package sat in its "clothes" for months. I only opened it 3 weeks ago to get to a drawing I wanted to hang on a wall - finally.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my mother's masterpiece of practical creativity and sewing diligence which was that package before I cut it up. (I was in a rush that day.) Here are the outer remnants that still remain:

handmade denim outer structure for large package, including plastic handle, 12" ruler to show size

The important thing was that the package travelled beautifully.

Thanks Mother.

Expensive Mail

I am completely frustrated by the Italian postal system and custom's office. Every time I receive just about anything from the US, I end up paying at least Euro 10 ($14) on it because it's value gets taxed at 20% and then additional customs and postal services are added for it to be handled at the Italian border.

The most recent frustrating payment occurred when someone sent what they declared as $50 worth of pictures to me (but pictures weren't even in the envelope). I found myself paying the normal taxes and fees with none of the benefits of even getting what I thought I was helping pay for!

Another good story comes from the time I sent 3 big boxes of old kitchen supplies to myself. Once the packages arrived, and since I had declared no value on the old pots and pans, Italy's customs office decided to tax me on the cost of the postage of having the boxes sent from the US. So for the box that cost $80 to send, I was taxed 20% on that value. It was absolutely crazy!

Those boxes were delivered to my house by a man with a TNT tag on his shirt and he was driving not a TNT van but a plain white one with no insignia . I found out later that the Italian postal service pays for private delivery services once the big packs come into the territory. I suppose some of these bogus fees are helping subsidize this costly Italian option. I just don't know why the Italian postal system cannot complete the delivery cycle itself, especially considering the foreign sender has paid for its total voyage to destination at the departure site.

If you think you can just take your boxes and not pay, you risk having the police come to your door with a criminal report.

Meanwhile, if you call the phone number the post office gives you to inquire about these fees, no one answers. You only have five days in which the package will remain in-country and not delivered. If you do not pay within that time, you risk having the package sent back to the sender for the cost of return delivery. It's a no-win situation for the receiver.

As usual, the system is awful and who pays? YOU