37100

Toilet brushes. People's list are sooo interesting. Don't be tempted to put a UK plug on Italian bought goods in warranty. If it goes wrong, you get the blame for tampering. And they are also not necessary if you have a modern leccy system with a circuit breaker.

HADENOUGHPIZZA

tea bags , a good selection of basic over the counter medications and an open mind .

malcesine99

Thanks all, some fab hints and tips there, all taken on board.

Re the plug tampering - I bought my parents a Saeco Coffee machine at the weekend. We tested in worked okay in Italy, all was fine so it was packed up and we brought it back to UK. My brother (an electrician) then changed the plug to a UK one, it must have just been a fluke we got it to work as when we tried to use the darn machine splattered coffee everywhere. We tried altering the fineness of the coffee and my OH who is a trained Barista prepped and primed the machine again to no avail. My mum phoned the helpline no for the UK(Philips) and explained everything, not expecting to get anywhere really. The Philips guy was really helpful and believe it or not the machine has been picked up this morning to be taken to their coffee machine specialist in Wales for repair (all free of charge). Pretty impressive customer service eh. Dread to think what would happen if we had the same problem in Italy!

37100

Mine was a coffee machine too! Tested it, it worked. Fixed with a UK plug and it wouldn't work. Didn't think to take it to the UK anyway to see if I could get it fixed their.

Lasbury

Would bring any garden furniture and garden tools.
We made the mistake of thinking they would be cheap here - they are not.
It is also difficult to get garden tools with the T type handle (at least in our area) and the straight handled ones take a bit of getting used to.

jiminalpago

[QUOTE=malcesine99;10054382]Thanks all, some fab hints and tips there, all taken on board.

Re the plug tampering - I bought my parents a Saeco Coffee machine at the weekend. We tested in worked okay in Italy, all was fine so it was packed up and we brought it back to UK. My brother (an electrician) then changed the plug to a UK one, it must have just been a fluke we got it to work as when we tried to use the darn machine splattered coffee everywhere.
-----------------------------------------------
Mine was a coffee machine too! Tested it, it worked. Fixed with a UK plug and it wouldn't work. Didn't think to take it to the UK anyway to see if I could get it fixed their.
-------------------------------------------------
Any technical reason why this should be so? I have cursed 3pin plugs for their "clunkyness" and even in uk I switched to(or left) two pin where I could, with no problems. On the safety angle, my (totally unscientific) observation re plugs (and power points in bathrooms) is that the only place I have ever seen reports of fatalities is the UK.
As for things to bring from UK, definitely greetings cards.

ballerina

I second EVERYTHING on this list... I get big boxes sent over regularly, £42 inc vat for a massive carton and I still save money on stuff like nappies and wipes and baby stuff (extortionate here, no wonder so many Italians only have one baby!), cooking ingredients, small electrical appliances (though after reading one of the posts above I am now panicking about the cost of using my kettle..) home furnishings (no decent choice here, very boring. I hate sunflower design plastic tablecloths and bedsheets! Our kitchen faces out into a courtyard and I always notice how vile everyone's bedsheets are, no style! brown with massive yellow roses printed on yuck!)

I also brought over nice plant pots, propagators, seeds for stuff like cucumber. decent potatoes and sweet potatoes which you can't get here, a mini greenhouse for my balcony and a bistro set that cost less than £30 in Sainsburys last year!

ballerina

In fact, I can't think of a single thing that is cheaper in Italy except wine. not things I want to buy anyway.

BTW did anyone hear about the woman who jumped from the top of the Tower of Pisa, the 4th woman this year apparently, due to the crisis.

Lorna at Vicenza

My sisters reckon that some creams and perfumes are cheaper here, sunglasses, some shoes and bags. I suppose it depends what you're looking for. I'm not a girly girl shopper so don't much go looking at that stuff either here or the UK. They've both had their hair done here in the past as well.

Not heard about that woman but haven't been watching the news much. Poor thing. That's desperate.

37100

Pretty much what my Mum buys too, except for the shoes. She also takes coffee back with her.

ballerina

ooh coffee yes. We get Quarta coffee when we go to Gallipoli. You can't seem to find it here in the north, or in England in the supermarkets. I thought that creams and stuff like Clarins, Clinique stuff seemed cheaper too, a few years ago, but when we went shopping for MIL's birthday I was gobsmacked how expensive it had become! €75 for a normal sized pot of moisturiser! Maybe it is where you go shopping too.

Lorna at Vicenza

We have a Superdrug type shop in the village and their prices are generally very good. My sister has bought stuff in there for cheaper prices than in the duty free shops at airports.

I think the price of sun cream is dear here though.

MarkRD

Those cheap packs/boxes of birthday and Christmas cards
Blu Tac
pop up toaster
cheap clothes and stuff from Primark
mosquito bite stuff - probably won't work but neither do they here and they cost twice as much.

Lorna at Vicenza

You can get blu-tak type stuff here now as well.

MarkRD

really? what's it called ? where d'ya get it?