Sending postcard from Roma

I send lots of postcards when I travel - somehow, I have it in my head that people actually want to hear from me. Probably delusional; but I can state, if the objective is to have your North American recipient's postcard arrive promptly, it is probably a better idea to buy the cards during your travels but stamp them and mail them when you return home.
Those 'foreign' stamps are pretty cool, but international postal costs are considerable and service is s l o w.

I have a question regarding postcards if it's o.k. to tag on to this thread. I sent 3 around October 10, 2 to the US and 1 to Germany and none have arrived. I bought the postcards and postage in Vernazza and sent from Florence. I thought I heard some discussion at the reception desk about their being different types of stamps that go in different mail boxes? So I'm wondering if I somehow messed this up as it seems odd that none of them have reached their destination. Fingers crossed it still might happen!

Thank you for your input. I have been an international business executive for over 30 years. When I lived in Europe, over 30 years ago, I mailed par avion lightweight letters to my family. When I travel abroad I do not mail back postcards. I wanted to contribute and update to a prior discussion which is now a closed topic thread. My daughter is studying abroad and I think it is a good experience and souvenir for her to document her travels with us. The cost now for Posta prioritaria is 2.20 Euro and it took 38 days to arrive. As you suggested, those who desire to mail postcards may want to wait till they return to the USA to mail..

Hi Debbie: Here is a more recent article which may help. But most blogs on this topic state different arrival times. Some postcards arrive 50 days later. There are two mailboxes per the article: one for Italy, one for outside of Italy. http://www.romefile.com/tourist-information/post.php

The Postagram app is something I read about on this forum (see jvb's post about halfway down the thread) but haven't used myself. The idea seems to be that you take a photo, create a message, then the app turns it into a postcard and mails it from within the destination country, thereby avoiding $$$ international postage rates. Jvb mentioned a cost of 99 cents (US) per card, which is a good deal from places like Italy.

A disadvantage is that the postcard will not arrive with interesting foreign stamps on it--though the 2.20-euro priority stamps I was sold in Italy looked rather like postage-meter strips. And let's face it, most of us can't take pictures that look as good as commercial postcards. On the other hand, you can include yourself or others in your travel party in the pictures you send via Postagram.

My wife and I sent postcards to our families and co-workers from London in late September......they arrived just before Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the information and link. I do seem to remember that the postage was 2.20E each and the shop had the 'T' outside where I bought the stamps. I gave the cards (on 2 separate days) to the reception desk at our hotel, rather than find a mail box, but am hoping that they still reach their destination!

Our postcards from Japan to the US took 7 days. Up until now I thought that was slow.

There was a time when guide books advised avoiding the Italian mail service completely because so much mail never got through. It appears that the situation has improved, at least somewhat.

I love postcards but I don't send them anymore, I email photos from my iPad mini. Not as much fun, but most people I know have never received a postcard.

I sent 2 postcards from Vienna in Sept. One arrived in Canada 4 days later, the other one took 3 weeks. Both were dropped in the same mailbox with the same type of stamp.

I love sending and receiving postcards. And one thing I do is always send a postcard to myself - usually of a place I visited or a piece of art I saw. It's either waiting for me when I come home or I receive it after I've returned. Either way, it's a lovely souvenir