Cover from Italy

Italia

Cover from Italy

Italia

Here are two covers from Italy with beautiful special postmarks. The first one seems to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Cultural Tourism, although I am not to sure exactly what the celebration or the Cultural Tourism is for.

The second cover has a postmark that commemorates the restoration of the old facade of the Parish Church of St. Nicolao, which is located in Valle San Nicolao, a comune (municipality) in the Province of Biella in the Italian region Piedmont.

I just wanted to point out that the second cover was received at the Poste Restante counter of the Macau Central Post Office on my birthday, so that makes this cover more special than it already is.

Cover from Italy

Cover from Italy

Cover from Italy

Italia

Roma, il capitale d'Italia

Many thanks to Enzo from Venezia for this very nice piece of philatelic stationery. Sadly, however, the Philippine postal workers wrought havoc on the beautiful postcard once again!

The part of Rome shown in this postcard and stamp is the Imperial Forums area. The Imperial Forums a series of public squares that were constructed between 46 BC and 113 AD. For many decades, they were the center of city life and important figures gathered there to discuss the economy or expound upon their beliefs about politics or any other hot subjects of the era.

The forums were built under four rulers, namely Caesar, Augustus, Nerva, and Trajan. The forum shown here was built during the time of Trajan and is the largest and greatest of the Imperial Forums. It was built to honor the conquest of Dacia in southeastern Europe (now Romania).

Much excavation had to be done to complete this forum, which consisted of several parts: a public square, a large temple (the Temple of Divius Traianus), two libraries and the immense Basilica Ulpia. For some time this particular civic building moved the center of political life from the Roman Forum to the Imperial Forums. Many of its marble columns (seen in the post card depiction) still stand today.

The 42 meter tall Trajan’s Column, located between the Basilica Ulpia and the Temple of Trajan indicated the exact height of the hill that was excavated for the construction of the forum.

Italia

Just in time for the Olympics (although now they are already over) I received this beautiful cover from Italy. Although it has only one stamp, I think that it is a very interesting piece since the stamp celebrates the Olympics in Beijing with a very interesting design.

The stamp is one of the two stamps in the “Lo sport Italiano” (Italian Sports) series dedicated to the Olympic Games - Beijing 2008 and issued on 07 Jul 08. The € 0.85 stamp features a disc framed in by a Greek border on the left and a floral border (typically Chinese) on the right. On the left-hand side of the disc, there are some figures of athletes similar to those designed on Ancient Greek ceramics; on the right-hand side there are some athletes depicted in the Chinese style of illustration. The five Olympic rings are pictured in the centre of the disc.

I really like the design of this stamp since it subtly signifies the meeting of East and West while at the same time showing that the two have very different histories and heritages, as demonstrated by the delineation of the two different styles (the Greek and the Chinese). Also, the fact that Italian has an actual translation for Beijing, which is "Pechino" from Beijing's old name of Peking, shows that China and Italy have shared a rather long history together. In fact, it all began with Marco Polo in the 1200s.t I'm a sucker when it comes to these kinds of things, so I'm not sure if many/any others can relate?

The stamp was canceled with a beautiful postmark (with a depiction of Livorno, I guess) at Livorno on date of issue, 07 July 08. A coincidence or not: the stamp was issued 07.07 and the Olympics started 08.08?

Italy

A wonderful surprise from the land of pizza and pasta. Fooled by its vertical orientation, I at first thought that this cover was a postcard, especially with the colorful souvenir sheet on top. But when I turned it over to read the message, I realized I was looking at the back of an envelope! What a curious cover - a wonderful surprise indeed!

The colorful souvenir sheet, issued 25 Feb 08, celebrates the song "Nel Blu, Dipinto di Blu" (literally "In the blue painted blue"), which is more popuarly known as "Volare" (Italian for "to fly"). The song, performed by Domenico Modugno and recorded in 1958, is a ballad in a dramatic chanson style, in which Modugno describes the feeling he has (which he likens to flying) when with his lover. It is the only song ever by an Italian artist to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and it was also the first to receive the Record of the Year (1958) award at the Grammies. It is the only foreign-language song to ever attain this prestigious title.

It has gained widespread popularity since its debut and has reached the top of charts all over the world through translations into various languages: "Воларе (Volare)," Russia; "Dans le bleu du ciel bleu", France; "En el azul del cielo," Spain; "Jouw ogen," Belgium; "Taivaan sinessä," Finland; "Azul pintado de azul," Mexico, Argentina, Brazil.

As for the design of the souvenir sheet, perhaps the image of the figure "soaring" is meant to show a visual representation of a the literal feeling of flying described in the song. In the background is a picturesque view of a town situated on a mountain next to the sea, perhaps typical of a certain region of Italy? According to Poste Italiane, the watermark-like circle on the stamp is meant to represent a 45 vinyl record, an evidenced by the "45 giri" inscription on the right side of the stamp.

The stamp to the lower left of the souvenir sheet is part of a set of 9 issued on 08 Feb 06 to celebrate the XX Olympic Winter Games held at Turin in 2006. This particular stamp features the biathlon, a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.

The games at Turin marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo in 1956. Italy also hosted the Games of the XVII Olympiad in Rome in 1960. The official motto of the XX Olympic Winter Games was "Passion lives here."

An interesting thing to note about Turin: Turin is the birth place of solid chocolate. It was in Turin that, at the end of the 18th century, Mr. Doret invented a revolutionary machine that could make solid chocolate (as opposed to drinking chocolate).

The two stamps on the lower right are definitives.

The stamps were canceled on 04 Jul 08 (America's 232nd birthday! :-) ) at Rovigo, a town in the Veneto region of northeastern Italy.

Italy

An interesting cover here from Italy. The commemorative stamp on the upper right was issued on 12 Feb 08 and celebrates 100 years of the foundation of the first factory of the Olivetti Company. The Olivetti Company, an Italian producer of computers, printers, and other business machines, was founded in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin, as a typewriter manufacturer, hence the typewriter shown on the design.

Olivetti was famous for the attention it gave to design: "[a] preoccupation with design developed into a comprehensive corporate philosophy, which embraced everything from the shape of a space bar to the color scheme for an advertising poster." In 1952, the Museum of Modern Art held an exhibit titled "Olivetti: Design in Industry"; many Olivetti products remain part of the museum's permanent collection.

Olivetti is today known as Olivetti Technost and is under the Telecom Italia group, although it still maintains a separate identity. It operates in Italy and Switzerland, and has sales associates in 83 countries. Research and development are located in Agliè, Arnad, Carsoli, and Scarmagno in Italy, and Yverdon, Switzerland. Recently the company has started to sell again a line of office fax/scanners/printers devices.

I find it quite odd that a manufacturing company is being featured on a stamp. Perhaps the company has played a major role in the country's society? Frankly, I've never heard of Olivetti before. Are they well-known only in Italy and/or Europe?

The other three stamps on the lower left are most probably definitives as their use is common on Italian mail pieces that I receive and they have realtively low denominations.

The very nice postmark celebrates the 2008 Regate Internazinali, or International Regatta, which seems to be a series of boat races and rowing events held yearly in Genova by the Yacht Club Italiano. The cancel was applied on 26 April 08 at Livorno, a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. Some intersting things about Livorno:

• Livorno was defined as an "ideal town" during the Italian Renaissance.
• Politically, Livorno is one of the most left-leaning cities of Italy. The Communist Party of Italy21 January1921.
• Livorno inhabitants speak a colourful variant of the Tuscan dialect of Italy named vernacolo, which is especially characterized by the popular interjection dé, which has a very wide range of meanings, usually recognizable only by the tone of the pronunciation, and a tourist is soon discovered if they pronounce the word as dè, because it is not the correct pronunciation.

Cover from Italy

Cover from Italy