Sending items home

Barbara, When I have bought something that I cannot carry, I've always had the shop ship it for me. So far, no issues.

It is always easy to mail as long as you are willing to pay the price which can be expensive. Depending on the item and value, there can be a customs issue in the US.

If you don't mind (high, very high) prices go ahead and mail from Paris and London. If you want to be sure you will see it again you might think twice about mailing from Italy. Plenty of previous discussion here about that topic if you use the search button.

I've had a lot of experience with this topic, so my advice: Try and have merchants ship anything you can. Especially large, heavy or fragile items. Use a credit card and feel safe it will arrive home before you do (you might ship to an office or family so it doesn't sit outside). Their cost is almost always as good or better than any other method and often you can save the VAT. Barring merchant shipping, The most reliable shipping is from someone like UPS, FedEx or DHL. With Google, you can find Mailboxes Etc stores in just about every major European city (except Madrid...). They ship UPS, and will box and carefully pack everything for you. But even by the slowest route, it can be pricey, anywhere between $100-300 depending on size and weight. And everyone I've ever been to has staff that speaks good English. In northern Europe, the post offices are pretty reliable and cheaper than a UPS. But English might be an issue and packing might be less secure. The further south you travel (Italy, Spain, etc...) the more issues and risk you take. Your last option is to bring an empty bag and lug the items around and bring them home yourself. Even with the fees for an extra bag, it is the cheapest way to go. But you lug it all around and fragile items could get broken.

In France, I've found that post offices have prepaid boxes that allow you to ship a certain amount of weight. It's been reasonable, and let's me avoid carrying a few kg's of books, paper, etc. In Italy there are Mailboxes etc offices, which are more reliable than the post office. However, that was expensive. They have no cheap, slow shipping options (at least where I did it, Ravenna, as I remember).

I think the I will just have to pack lighter than I planned so I have room for a few things.. its not worth 100 in shipping to ship home some fois gras and scarves:) perhaps and extra bag might work but we don't want to carry it all over the place so that poses a problem.. we really just planned to buy fun things that one cannot get here not so much expensive vases or anything of that nature..