ROME – A British man in his sixties says he has used three EU passports to get around post-Brexit travel restrictions and make the most of his holiday home in Italy.

Paul Scotti is a retired gardener living in Manchester with Italian, Spanish and Maltese citizenship and UK residency. He said it was “fun” traveling with a different passport each time he visited the island region of Sardinia, where he owns a rural cottage near the small town of Sassari.

“My father, who is Sicilian from Caltanissetta, moved to England in his twenties in search of a brighter future, where he met my mother, a Spanish lady from Granada, and with whom She gets married.

“They spent their lives working as bartenders in London and Manchester but never applied for British citizenship. Deep down they proudly feel and remain completely Mediterranean, even though they call me Paul,” Scotty sir tell me I.

Mr Scotti was born in Spain, married Martina Galea, a 50-year-old interior designer and British-Maltese woman from La Valletta, and obtained a Maltese passport. But like his parents, he never registered for British citizenship, although he acquired it through marriage.

“I love Manchester, the vibrant British people and the British countryside. Brexit has not affected my travels, so why would I want to leave the UK? In fact, the restrictions have prompted me to buy a holiday home in Italy,” he said .

When Brexit came into effect in 2020, Scotti decided it was time to start utilizing his three European passports.

He bought a three-bedroom house in the countryside of Sassari, not far from the sea and powdery beaches, and now commutes six months a year to Manchester, where his three sons and grandson live.

“I’m a lucky guy, with all these European passports, I can travel as much as I want, without any restrictions for me and my wife. Every time I travel to Europe, I take three passports with me so that I have ‘ ‘Back up’ just in case one of the passports is preferred over the others,” Mr Scotti said.

While he used Italian and Spanish passports, he said airport controls at Manchester International Airport were “endless and overly scrutinized”, while the Maltese passport allowed him what he called a “privileged fast track”.

“Probably because of the close ties in the past between the UK and Malta, a British colony where everyone still speaks English, my Maltese passport was well received by the immigration officials. In just two minutes I was out of the airport and in my car ,” Mr. Scotti said.

In his opinion, now that the UK is no longer a member of the EU, most EU passports will be “looked down upon” by the British authorities, especially Italian passports.

“When the British airport staff started checking my Italian passport, noticed there might be a stamp or small detail missing or illegible, and started making a fuss that it ‘didn’t comply’ with UK travel rules, I pulled the Maltese or Spanish one out of my pocket, They will change their attitude immediately,” he added.

He is delighted to have the “privilege” of using multiple passports as a good way to get around Brexit travel rules.

“Of course I voted Remain and if I didn’t have triple citizenship and three passports I might have given up on the UK and moved to Malta or Italy permanently. My wife has a family home in La Valletta.”

Having three passports also allows him to travel freely within any Schengen country in Europe without having to “have the headache of making plans or checking calendars to comply with the 90-day rule,” which states that non-EU citizens can only spend $90 per person. 180 days for EU countries.

In Sassari, Mr Scotti invested much of his life savings in a country house for €150,000 (£128,000), which came with a plot of land, an orchard and a small pool, which he enlarged to 12 meters long .

“I spent around €10,000 (£8,500) extra on minimal renovations, upgrading the kitchen and a bathroom, but all in all it was a very good deal. A similar property in the UK would have cost at least £700,000 pounds,” Mr Scotti said.