I sent some green tea, whisks, cups, teapots and assorted paraphenalia to a buddy of mine in Milan. It arrived in 10 days. The Italians don't give a shit about tea and the mere idea of it is enough to make them barf, so no one stole it.
Some registered mail, on another occassion, containing money orders, never arrived. Turns out they were cashed by some nogoodnicks. It took a year to sort that one out.