Small expenses are the ones nobody adds up and which, added up, weigh most. This category exists to make the annual cost of apparently trivial habits visible.
The price of a domestic parcel turns on two variables rather than one: weight, which everybody considers, and format, which almost nobody checks and which is worth a flat five euros in every band.
Verified on Jul 2026 · 2 sources
The tariff for registered post depends on weight alone, but the figure quoted everywhere — six euros — is the version without a return receipt, meaning the version that does not produce the proof registered post is used for.
Verified on Jul 2026 · 1 source
It falls in the 0 to 3 kilogram band, which costs EUR 10.30 with Poste Delivery Standard if the box respects the standard format dimensions. If the box exceeds them, the same two-kilo parcel costs EUR 15.30: five euros more, almost fifty per cent. That is why it is worth measuring the box rather than only weighing it, and it is the difference most often missing from comparisons published elsewhere.
Sending a parcel within ItalyThe return receipt costs EUR 1.05 and is added to the tariff for the weight band. A light item up to 20 grams therefore goes from EUR 6.00 to EUR 7.05. In the top band, 1,001 to 2,000 grams, it goes from EUR 16.45 to EUR 17.50. It is the extra that makes registered post useful as proof of delivery, and it is the reason the figure most often quoted, six euros, almost always understates what is actually spent.
Sending registered post in Italy