V is for Vatican City

Last year I was at the Vatican and sent a few postcards from there. I was highly amused by the instructions on how to send a postcard.

There are actually multiple offices. One inside the museum, and two in St Peters Square. One in the square is in a mobile trailer.

A few minutes after leaving the square I stopped and bought a postcard for a friend and the shop also sold stamps. Even though I was now back in Italy, I was given a Vatican City stamp, and I asked if it needed to go in a Vatican post box. The seller said no, just post it anywhere. I decided to walk back to St Peters Square rather than risk Italian post, because when Eva was there her postcards took a month to arrive at their destinations.

This stamp celebrates the 15th General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. It is a lovely colorful stamp.

The Vatican mail box outside the other post office in the square.

For more V-themed postage, head over to Sunday Stamps.

The ides of postcards

A postcard of Rome St Peter's from Eva sent from an unexpected place - Vatican City.

A Dutch castle from Heleen

Helen's card arrived on 'Big Mail Monday' - one of the biggest batches of mail I've received on one day in a long time. Make sure to see Heleen's personalized stamp - very cool. They'll all be blogged eventually, in the meantime, here's the group photo:

And another postcard from Eva, showing a beautiful ancient mosaic, and taking its time to arrive from Italy in exactly a month. By comparison, the card from the Vatican took a week to get here.