The Italian mailbox

In Italy, the postman always delivers the mail, but never picks it up. If you need to mail letters and cards use the red boxes or, if you need to send a package, go to the post office. 
Red mailboxes have two small windows to drop the mail in. One says: “Per la città” which means “For the city”, the other one says “Per tutte le altre destinazioni,” which means “For all the other destinations.” Obviously, the one is for local mail while the other is for all other national and international destinations.

Tourists usually mail postcards and letters from Italy to their family and friends around the world. A Priority Mail stamp for postcards and letters (up to 20 grams) from Italy to the USA costs €2,20 (which, to me, is just crazy expensive: about $2.40 for a postcard! And this doesn’t include the postcard itself. Add the cost of it to the stamp and we are talking about $3 to send your greetings across the ocean).

{This is an excerpt from chapter 9 “The Post Office” of the eBook “Italy from the Inside. A native Italian reveals the secrets of traveling in Italy”. Buy our eBook on Amazon and leave us a review! If it’s good, you’ll make us happy, if it’s bad, you’ll make us improve. Thank you either way!}

Photo by Francesca Tosolini

Usually, there are big lines at the post offices; remember though that you don’t need to go the post office to purchase stamps. You can do it at any tabaccheria (tobacconist), a store recognizable by a big white T against a blue or black background. Here you can also find the blue self-adhesive “by airmail/via aerea” sticker, that, according to the Italian postal service, is mandatory if you need to send either postcards or letters overseas (however, based on my experience, mail arrives at its destination even without it).

Once your postcard/letter is stamped and ready to go, look for the red mailboxes, which most of the times are installed right outside the tabaccherie and where you can drop your stamped mail (see photo above).

{This is an excerpt from chapter 9 “The Post Office Information” of the eBook “Italy from the Inside. A native Italian reveals the secrets of traveling in Italy”}