Send parcel to Malta

Who ships from Italy to Malta, and what goes?

Malta lies ninety kilometres off Sicily, almost everyone understands Italian and Italian television has always been on the air, so Italy is the island's first supplier for nearly everything. The Italian community has grown a lot in recent years thanks to the online gaming companies of St Julian's, Sliema and Ta' Xbiex, which hire thousands of young Italians: from here come personal parcels, the boxes of people relocating and the first supplies of coffee and things from home. Then the restaurants: Italian cooking is everywhere in Malta, from Valletta to Mellieħa, and pizzerias and restaurants order flour, tomatoes, cheese, cured meats and kitchen equipment from Italy, because the island produces little and imports almost everything. And then the businesses: hotels refurbishing their rooms out of season with Italian furniture and lighting, the boatyards and marinas of the Grand Harbour and Msida receiving spare parts and accessories for yachts, the pharmaceutical firms in the industrial zones of Bulebel and Ħal Far buying components and packaging materials. There is no customs: Malta is part of the common customs territory and parcels travel without an invoice and without paperwork, food included. With Europacco you just enter the shipment details, pay online and print the transport document.

Via Pozzallo or by air? How long a parcel to Malta takes

4 to 8 working days from collection in Italy. The distance is short, but a parcel to Malta still has to cross the sea, and that explains the range. The most common route is by road down to Sicily and then the ferry from Pozzallo to Valletta, under two hours of sailing, or the ro-ro ships that leave Genoa and Salerno and dock at the Freeport in Marsaxlokk. Express shipments fly into Luqa airport instead. Deliveries in the urban area around Valletta, Sliema, Birkirkara and Msida, where most of the population lives, sit at the low end of the range, while Gozo and the villages of the south and west sit at the high end. The Pozzallo ferry is cancelled when the Strait of Sicily is stormy, which happens more often in winter than you might think, and then the goods wait for the next crossing. The Europacco service delivers to the door across Malta and Gozo at the same price, and a single order can send several parcels to the same recipient.

Why does Malta need the house name and not the number?

Because in many Maltese villages houses have no number, they have a name, engraved on a plaque beside the door: "Dar il-Fjuri", "Villa Rosa", "St Joseph House". The house name goes on the label exactly as the recipient gives it, and in newer blocks of flats the flat number and floor are added, "Flat 3, Level 2". Streets are called "Triq" in Maltese and "Street" in English, and both forms are correct: "Triq il-Kbira" and "Main Street" are the same road. The Maltese postcode has three letters and four digits, and the letters identify the town: SLM for Sliema, STJ for St Julian's, VLT for Valletta, BKR for Birkirkara, VCT for Victoria in Gozo. An example: "Mario Rossi, Flat 3, Dar il-Fjuri, Triq San Ġorġ 12, San Ġiljan STJ 3201, Malta, tel. +356 ...". In the Europacco order form the house name goes in the address field, before the street. The special Maltese letters ħ, ġ and ż can be written without the diacritic, the courier understands anyway. One thing that surprises people: many places have both a Maltese and an English name, San Ġiljan is St Julian's, Tas-Sliema is Sliema, and Birgu is Vittoriosa. On the label, the form the recipient uses is fine.

How does a parcel get to Gozo?

Always through Malta. Gozo has no commercial port and no cargo airport, so the parcel first reaches the main island and then takes the ferry between Ċirkewwa, on Malta's northern tip, and Mġarr, the port of Gozo, a twenty-five-minute crossing with frequent sailings all day. The local courier drives the van onto the ship and delivers the same day or the next, and this leg usually adds a day compared with Valletta. Just over thirty thousand people live on Gozo, concentrated in Victoria, which the Gozitans call Rabat, and in the villages of Xagħra, Nadur and Xewkija. The island's farmhouses, often bought and restored by foreigners, are the typical destination for parcels from Italy: tiles, taps, furniture and fittings for the holiday homes and the small guesthouses that open every year. Comino, the third island, has no permanent residents and is not served. A tip for Gozo: the recipient's phone number matters more here than elsewhere, because on the country lanes the courier calls before driving up.

Festa, Santa Marija and the August heat: when the island slows down

Malta has fourteen public holidays a year, one of the fullest calendars in Europe, and spreads them across every season: 10 February for the shipwreck of St Paul, 19 March for St Joseph, 31 March Freedom Day, 7 June Sette Giugno, 29 June L-Imnarja, 8 September Victory Day, 21 September Independence Day, 13 December Republic Day, plus the religious feasts that coincide with the Italian ones. 15 August, Santa Marija, is the biggest holiday, and around that date many companies close for a week, as in Italy. From June to September every village celebrates its patron saint with processions, brass bands and fireworks, and for a weekend the streets of the centre are closed and decorated: the couriers know it and deliver before or after. The climate calls for no special packaging, but in summer the humidity of the sirocco and temperatures above thirty-five degrees make chocolate and anything that melts a bad idea, and the autumn storms of October and November flood the low-lying streets of Msida and Birkirkara for a few hours. The time is the same as in Italy, which makes it easy to agree a delivery time by phone.