Send a letter to Italy from Sweden

The house number comes after the street name: Via Roma 15. Always write out the street type — Via, Viale, Corso, Piazza, Vicolo.

The postal code (CAP) has five digits and appears before the city name. After the city, write the province code in parentheses: (MI) Milano, (RM) Roma, (NA) Napoli. Many Italian towns share the same name, and the province code is what distinguishes them.

Leading zeros appear in northern Italy, such as 00184 Roma. Always include them.

The last line is ITALIEN in uppercase. This is Swedish for Italy — it may feel wrong to write in Swedish when the rest of your letter is in English, but Swedish postal sorting requires the destination country in Swedish.

The last line is always the country name in Swedish: ITALIEN. This surprises people who write the rest of the address in English, but the letter is sorted in Sweden before it leaves the country, and Swedish sorting reads Swedish. Everything above that line should look exactly as it would if the letter had been posted inside Italy, because a postal worker there is the one who has to read it.

Almost every letter that fails to arrive has an address problem, not a transport problem. These are the mistakes that keep coming back on mail posted from Sweden to Italy:

Always add a sender address. A letter with a correct sender comes back to you if the address is wrong, and you can then send it again. Without one, the letter is simply gone.

Normal delivery is 4–8 vardagar, counted from the moment we hand the letter to PostNord — not from the moment you order. Order before 11:45 on a weekday and the letter is handed in the same day.

Most of the variation comes from distribution inside Italy rather than from the flight. A letter to a major city arrives faster than one to a rural address in the same country.

A standard letter to Italy costs 88 SEK and an express letter 128 SEK. Printing, paper, envelope, postage and hand-in to PostNord are all included. The price is the same to every country, so you never need to know which postal zone Italy belongs to.

PostNord divides the world into seven zones if you buy stamps and post the letter yourself, which is why other services charge different amounts for different countries. The table below shows both options.

Poste Italiane delivers mail on a rotating schedule in which certain areas receive delivery every other day rather than daily. This is the most common reason a letter to Italy may take longer than one to Germany, even though both are neighbouring countries.

For Sicily, Sardinia and smaller islands, additional ferry or air transport is required, which can extend delivery times beyond the mainland average.

Registered international mail (Rek utrikes) may contain documents only, weighs no more than 2 kg and carries liability up to 2,000 SEK. It can be tracked to most countries, and only one recipient may be named.

It is the right service for notices of termination, powers of attorney and legal documents where you need proof that the letter was sent. The country name still has to be written in Swedish on a registered letter — ITALIEN on the last line.

Banknotes and coins may not be sent in an international letter, in any currency and for any amount. Dangerous goods are prohibited. Goods sent in a letter to a country outside the EU require a customs declaration and a barcode that an ordinary letter does not carry.

We therefore send documents and personal letters only. That is also what keeps the service simple: no customs forms, no weighing and no questions about the contents.

You need no printer, no envelope and no international stamps. Everything happens in your browser, and the letter is handed to PostNord in Sweden by us.