Hand Rolled Cigarettes and Customs

Contact the Italian Consulate:

http://tinyurl.com/lo57ans

If you haven't already, you might want to Google something like "smoking in Italy 2015." The places where you can do it legally are very few and becoming even fewer. And of course, you want to find out what your lodging's policies on it are. It may be harder than he thinks to indulge while you are there.

I am just not sure how easy a smoker is going to have it period. I don't know where you are flying from but it seems to be a huge problem even finding a place to smoke in the airport, also most of Europe is smoke free. Maybe think about nicotine gum or patches? I think the other suggestion to contact someone in Italy is a good idea.

He will be fine. He'll have nothing to declare.

Lots of smokers in Italy, but you cannot smoke indoors in most places. You can smoke seated outdoors at restaurants and bars (making the al fresco experience less fun for the rest of us). Some hotels still have smoking rooms, but don't try it in a room that is non-smoking, the housekeeping staff will likely turn you in.

How about bringing the tobacco, papers and machine along? I really don't know the answer to your question, and perhaps you have traveled with his cigarettes already, but honestly, I would be seriously worried about trying to explain a wad of hand rolled anything as I got off the plane. Good luck!

According to this site, when travelling by air from outside the EU the limits are:

• 200 cigarettes or
• 100 cigarillos or
• 50 cigars or
• 250 g of smoking tobacco.
Each amount specified in above points will amount to 100% of the total allowance for tobacco products.

Other sites give the same limits.

From this Numbeo website -- http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Italy -- it says that the cost of a pack of Marlboros is 5,00 €. It looks like the other info could be useful, too, assuming it's accurate. Just an FYI.

In 50 years of travel the only time my bags have been checked was in 1961 on the docks of NYC after a transatlantic ocean crossing and once in Chicago when declaring canned meats.

Odds that this will be an issue is pretty much zilch. There is not even a declaration form coming into Italy and you will be lucky if they stamp your passport. (be sure you insist they do as that sets your Schengen clock and we had problems leaving when the Italian immigration clerk failed to do this.)

Tobacco is the number one thing that customs agents in Europe go after because the taxes are so high. They do employ tobacco sniffing dogs these days. Best not to mess around and abide by the law. It's not something that will send you to jail, but the fines/duties can be high.