Car shipping to Lake Como

Every Lake Como shipment begins with a collection from a mainland UK address you nominate. The transporter arrives within a pre-agreed window, and before the car is loaded for the run north to Bellagio, Cernobbio or Tremezzo, the driver completes a pre-shipment inspection: every panel photographed, the fuel level and mileage recorded, and the documentation walked through with you.

From there, the car crosses into Europe in a single-vehicle enclosed transporter with air-ride suspension: the standard routing runs Eurotunnel from Folkestone, then south on the French autoroute network via Reims and Lyon over the Mont Blanc tunnel into Aosta and Milan; or alternatively through Switzerland via the Gotthard into Lugano and Como. Calais to Lake Como is around 16 hours on the road and most shipments complete inside four working days. We choose the Alpine pass twenty-four hours before departure once the weather window is known, with the French route as the summer default and the Swiss route used where Gotthard queues are clear.

Where the schedule allows, a sea routing from Southampton or Felixstowe to Genoa covers the trunk leg in around five days and suits multi-vehicle consignments or moves alongside a household. The Milan and Como depots, the Italian customs clearance and the Alpine pass routing stay our responsibility; the car arrives lakeside cleared and ready to deliver.

Lake Como divides into clusters and our drivers know each cluster’s access pattern. Cernobbio and Moltrasio on the south-west shore are reached easily by full-size transporter, with the Villa d’Este courtyard accommodating the largest arrivals during the Concorso weekend. Tremezzo and the central western shore are wider than Argegno but tighten through Lenno and Mezzegra, and the lakeside corniche north of Argegno needs a smaller enclosed trailer for many addresses. Bellagio sits at the apex of the lake and is reached via the ferry from Cadenabbia or by the eastern shore from Lecco. Como old town has a residents’ ZTL with camera enforcement and is delivered into via a pre-arranged permit.

The lakeside hotel set — Villa d’Este, Mandarin Oriental Lago di Como, Grand Hotel Tremezzo, Passalacqua — receives cars at the courtyard or front entrance, and we co-ordinate the arrival window with the concierge desk before the transporter leaves the UK. Private lakeside villas are delivered to the gate, with the property manager briefed on the arrival window two to three days ahead.

The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in late May is the single most important date on the Lake Como calendar for our service. The event runs across the Villa d’Este courtyard on the Saturday and the Villa Erba lawns on the Sunday, with one of the most concentrated weekends of concours-class movement anywhere in Europe. We ship both entrants — early Ferraris, prewar Alfas, vintage Bugattis, competition Lancias — and the road-going arrivals for the surrounding Cernobbio hotels.

Booking for the Concorso weekend is best confirmed by the end of February. The arrival window with the Concorso organisers is built into the transit schedule, and the return shipment back to the UK is locked in at the same time. For long-running collectors, the same driver, the same trailer and the same broker handle the run year after year, with the relationships at the Villa d’Este paddock established over a decade of attendance.

Our Italian broker lodges the import declaration on arrival. A Concorso weekend or a summer at the lake pays no Italian VAT or duty under temporary admission, provided the car leaves by its agreed exit date; a permanent move to Italian plates is a different process, covered in full in our European customs guide. At hand-over, whether that’s the Villa d’Este courtyard, a lakeside villa gate off the narrow corniche above Argegno, or wherever else on the lake you’ve nominated, you receive the cleared customs release, the bill of lading and the pre-shipment inspection record, checked against a final inspection on the day. The pack is also emailed.