In early Beehive days, before social media, postcards were our guest’s preferred way of communicating and sharing their travels with family and friends back home.
Perhaps postcards are making a comeback because recently I’ve had several guests ask me about how to mail them. Here are just a few tips:
Tabaccheria/Tobacco Shops
Stamps can be bought at a tabaccheria/tobacco shop, but many times they don’t have the right configuration. For example, currently to mail a postcard to the US is €2.40 but there is no one stamp that is €2.40. They may only have stamps available that add up to a higher value depending on what denominations they have available.
The Italian Post Office & the Vatican Post Office
At the Italian post office, called Poste Italiane (PT), they do not sell stamps. You can pay the exact amount, but it’s an adhesive label printed out that you then affix to the postcard. Not as romantic as a stamp, but you pay precisely the amount required.
If you buys stamps from the Vatican, you can only mail that post from the Vatican. You cannot mail it through the regular Italian post.
GPS – Global Postal Service
GPS – Global Postal Service is a private postal service that sells stamps for postcards at a lesser cost than the regular post and is available in various shops around town. Postcards with these stamps cannot be mailed through the regular Italian post and can only be mailed in the yellow postboxes found in these shops. It takes anywhere from 2-3 weeks for mail to be delivered. Keep information about the stamps and you can track using the QR code.
Smartphone Apps
For the ultimate in convenience and personalisation, now there are phone apps like TouchNote that can turn photos on your phone into postcards and mails them for you directly. You can prepare and pay all through your phone.
Hi, what if I dropped all postcards with GPS stamps in regular mailbox? Will they just dispose it? I dropped around 10 postcards into regular mailbox…
Unfortunately, I’m afraid your postcards won’t make it to their destination. GPS stamps are a private service and postcards with those stamps need to go into the special post boxes for them that are located at various tourist-type shops. The Italian Postal Service will not deliver those postcards. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.