Emir wrote:
Every time I land in Italy customs is there asking if I carry more than €10k. Croatia-Italy is EU flight so no customs should be involved.
Just because you’re traveling within the customs union doesn’t mean that everything can move freely. Cash is one of the things that are still regulated. E.g. if you go to Germany and carry more than IIRC €10k, you have to declare it (there is a list online with limits for each EU MS). Similarly there is a limit on the amount of cigarettes you can carry IIRC. They’re not required to be there but they AFAIK can.
Don’t know about Sicily, but some territories, especially islands, are treated differently. One example is VAT where the directive has a list of them where it doesn’t apply (e.g. you’d have to pay VAT if you bought a plane from there as if it was imported from outside the EU).
Hello all. I have recently relocated to Italy, and somewhat ironically, my local aerodrome is Boscomantico!
I have been a PPL for a number of years, however most of my experience has been in the wide open spaces of the USA, and having looked at the various charts, the comments about “How to” in northern Italy resonate. That being said, my real question is regarding language, my Italian is weak, and I intend to move around Italy and beyond, probably VMC, but with the aircraft I own, IFR is also a possibility, but am wondering at the smaller grass strips that use radio, how important is Italian? Hopefully my linguistics will improve but I am not looking to add another layer of problems if possible.
The charts do look daunting hence my concern if local comms are in Italian.
In this regard, the small Italian airfields are quite relaxed. It‘s not like in France where the local language is imposed via the aeronautical information publication.
If there is a radio operator and you start talking in English, his English responses might be very short (if he/she speaks little Italian) , but nobody will make a fuss. If there is no radio operator, then even less so.
Of course, it would be better and safer if you could make proper reports in Italian (and understand possible other guys reports), but it is not a showstopper.
At the aviosuperfici (which is most of the grass strips), a radio is not mandated at all.
Response much appreciated. I have more concern regarding the smaller strips rather than Controlled airspace as listening on the scanner, Its predominantly in English. As above, I am learning but it takes time. Looking at the various airspace around Boscomantico/Verona and not fully understanding the Italian “how it is actually done” method, it looks like from Verona to Lucca, I have to head East! If you have any flight training recommendations let me know. I just want to get familiar with how it’s all done, rather than learn to fly. I do have a US IR, but it’s been many years since I’ve used it so I would need to do some revalidation before using it. the A/C is USA registered and fast, hence my language concerns as I could be somewhere compromising whilst I translate in my head!
[ @8bucksagallon posts moved to the right thread on flying in Italy ]
You probably know this already, but… if you are resident in Italy, you will need EASA licenses that allow you to do everything you are trying to do. As a minimum a PPL, plus whatever “variations” are needed for your aircraft (retractable, tailwheel, EFIS, …). If you want to fly IFR, you will also need an EASA IR.
The good news is that under the BASA process, you can get those with relatively little effort – in particular, no need for explicit theory study. You just have to satisfy an examiner. However, how/whether BASA has been implemented in Italy, I have no idea. It works well in France, as long as you work with people who understand the system. And French licenses would be just as good as Italian for this purpose.
I don’t know where you have already been, but it’s likely that the places you will likely want to visit first are those which have English* speaking TWR/AFIS anyway:
After that though, you might want to try non* ATS airports, such as:
or aviosuperfici, such as:
Be warned, the place (Verona) is a magic place to be based at…, you have so many amazing places within one flight hour, it is highly addictive. You will want to fly every week. Unfortunately, you will find some fog in the next 4 months…
Hmmm the licence situation is interesting, and I have clearly been misadvised, or misunderstood. I hold UK/USA PPL. UK-Night IMC USA IR. I am a resident and the A/C is N reg, so now I really need to find out what I need to do so as not to fall foul. The A/C is registered to a USA entity, it will be imported this side of Christmas, and VAT paid if required, Its unclear if I will be able to put it on a Euro reg. I appreciate I am in the wrong thread, but any direction welcome. As to the location, yes, it really is a great place to be based, Though I have done little flying from here currently, I am hoping that next year I can take full advantage of my location and do some touring.
Now we are getting into N-reg ownership in Italy, which gets interesting 
The notorious EASA dual-papers requirement is detailed here although that article needs a bit of an update. The UK, post-brexit, did its own similar version. So you will need to do an EASA IR also.
I recently obtained an EASA PPL. It was a paperwork exercise done through the Danish FAA equivalent. I had the great help of my annual recurrent training instructor and examiner, without which I probably would have pulled all my hair out. It was done on the back of my longstanding FAA papers. For some reason Denmark is considered one of the easiest countries to do this.
With this in hand I am off this week to Germany to get my IR and PA46 ratings redone, once again on the competency basis, so no theory exams.
