Mailing Postcards...

I did that too, after a suggestion from a fellow tour member. It's a lot of fun checking your mail when you get back home! I made a note of the different gelato flavors I ate.

Stamps are a snap to get. Public mailboxes, however, are harder to find. I looked all over Florence before finding one in the train station. When I was there in December, a stamp cost 80 cents (in euros). You can buy Italian stamps at any tabbachi shop (just ask for 'francobolli for United States America' and they understand fine) or Vatican stamps from the post office in St. Peter's Square.

Write your postcards out ahead of time so that when you find one of those elusive mailboxes you can slip it in right then and there. If I remember correctly the boxes were red?

Mailing postcards goes for 80 cents and letters start at 85 cents.. both figures are in Euros. Post Offices are EVERYWHERE! Look for the yellow PT signs.( PosteItaliane).

Ciao,
Ron

Last September it was almost a Euro. You can get stamps at Tobacco shops/stands which are nearly everywhere.

Ron - Can you add a little more advice? In my experience, Italian post offices can be a little difficult. You have to know the procedure - taking a number, being in the line to buy stamps and not to pay utility bills, etc. They close at inconvenient times. And, as Rick always says, the Italian postal clerks speak English as well as American clerks speak Italian. So you need to be armed with the words for stamps, postcards, number you want and for the United States. None of which occur to me now except that I remember I love the Italian word for stamps. Is it francobolli?

Doug - you're correct, the word for stamps is francobolli! To come clean, I rarely buy stamps at the post office because I RARELY use the Italian postal service. I live close to the Vatican and thus use their mail service as all Vatican mail goes directly from the Vatican to Switzerland and then on to it's destination. Frankly the Italian postal
system is a disaster.

Yet although I do not buy stamps there, I must go there at least once a month to pay my bills. Because I'm renting, and the "services" are not in my name, I must pay IN CASH all my electric, water, gas, cable, etc AT any Post Office. So I have spent my fair share of time in post offices. And if you bill is 50 euros, you have to add 1 Euro for "handling." So you're paying to pay your bill!

The average wait to pay bills is about 45 minutes. The good news is in Rome there are hundreds of post offices and you can pay your bills at any of them. So often I'll carry my bills and when driving through town eyeball the lines at the post offices I pass, pull up on the sidewalk and run in! (the advantage of having a scooter).

The English version of their website is: http://www.poste.it/en/ . I note on the site that letters start at 60 cents; that is to mail IN ITALY so purchase at minimum the 85 cent stamps if you are posting mail out of the country. Try and take away any reason for your mail not to get there - Trust me, the system has enough inadequacies built into it!

There's always a lot going on at your local Italian post office. It doles out "retirement" funds, has it's own bank and credit card system, it's where you go to pay parking tickets (been there for that), registration fees for your car, etc. Yep, if it's going to be done, it will be done at the Post Office! And yes, they do get robbed often! Jokingly it's regarded as a national sport!

So buy your stamps at a tabacchi shop or the Vatican... and good luck in your mailings!

Ciao,
Ron

Early in the '90s I was advised by someone who had spent time in the Vatican to use their post office. Apparently, there had been scandals about Italian mail carriers dumping mail off the sides of cliffs.

But I have never had problems with postcards being mailed from Italy. After all, you can't mail from the Vatican if you get no farther south than Siena.

Thanks, Ron, for your help with the post offices. I would just add that you may need to go to them if the local tabacchi does not have adequate foreign post card stamps.

I have also been able to buy stamps where I have purchased the postcard.

If you're staying at a hotel or some B&Bs, they can usually mail them for you.