Napoli

Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC. A larger colony – initially known as Parthenope, Παρθενόπη – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages.The city was refounded as Neápolis in the sixth century BC and became a lynchpin of Magna Graecia, playing a key role in the merging of Greek culture into Roman society and eventually becoming a cultural centre of the Roman Republic. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, serving as the capital city of the Kingdom of Naples between 1282 and 1816. Thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. During the Neapolitan War of 1815, Naples strongly promoted Italian unification.

Naples is traditionally credited as the home of pizza.This originated as a meal of the poor, but under Ferdinand IV it became popular among the upper classes: famously, the Margherita pizza was named after Queen Margherita of Savoy after her visit to the city. Cooked traditionally in a wood-burning oven, the ingredients of Neapolitan pizza have been strictly regulated by law since 2004, and must include wheat flour type "00" with the addition of flour type "0" yeast, natural mineral water, peeled tomatoes or fresh cherry tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, sea salt and extra virgin olive oil.

Source: Wikipedia

Thanks to my friend Dianna who was recently back in her hometown.

Sent: 9 May 2016    Received: 23 May 2016   Travelled: 14 days

Venice

The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC. The city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the "La Dominante", "Serenissima", "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Masks", "City of Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of Canals".

The Republic of Venice was a major maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and a staging area for the Crusades and the Battle of Lepanto, as well as a very important center of commerce (especially silk, grain, and spice) and art in the 13th century up to the end of the 17th century. This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period. After the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the Republic was annexed by the Austrian Empire, until it became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, following a referendum held as a result of the Third Italian War of Independence. Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi.

Source: Wikipedia

Thanks to Simona for another beautiful card from her travels :)

Sent: 5 May 2016    Received: 24 May 2016   Travelled: 19 days

Firenze

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 382,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1,520,000 in the metropolitan area.

Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages". A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy.

The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 millions of tourists each year, and Euromonitor International ranked the city as the world's 89th most visited in 2012, with 1.8 million visitors. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments. The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Source: Wikipedia

Thanks to Walter via Postcrossing for this beautiful view and the Pope stamp!

Sent: 10 May 2016   Received: 20 May 2016   Travelled: 10 days

170th Foundation Italy Maxicard

Thanks to Elisabetta for the beautiful maxicard

Sent: 21 April 2016   Received: 10 May 2016   Travelled: 19 days

Catania

 

Catania  is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the Province of Catania, and is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.
Catania is known for its historical earthquakes, having been destroyed by a catastrophic earthquake in 1169, another in 1693, and several volcanic eruptions from the neighboring Mount Etna, the most violent of which was in 1669.
Catania has had a long and eventful history, having been founded in the 8th century BC. In 1434, the first university in Sicily was founded in the city. In the 14th century and into the Renaissance period, Catania was one of Italy's most important cultural, artistic, and political centers.
Source: Wikipedia

Thanks to Salvatore for the meetup card from Catania!

Sent: 8 March 2016   Received: 21 March 2016   Travelled: 13 days

Bologna

Bologna is the largest city (and the capital) of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, located in the heart of a metropolitan area (officially recognized by the Italian government as a città metropolitana) of about one million.

The first settlements date back to at least 1000 BC. The city has been an urban centre, first under the Etruscans (Velzna/Felsina) and the Celts (Bona), then under the Romans (Bononia), then again in the Middle Ages, as a free municipality (for one century it was the fifth largest European city based on population). Home to the oldest university in the world, University of Bologna, founded in 1088, Bologna hosts thousands of students who enrich the social and cultural life of the city. Famous for its towers and lengthy porticoes, Bologna has a well-preserved historical centre (one of the largest in Italy) thanks to a careful restoration and conservation policy which began at the end of the 1970s, on the heels of serious damage done by the urban demolition at the end of the 19th century as well as that caused by wars.

Source: Wikipedia

Thanks to Silvan for this beautiful card from Bologna!

Sent: 24 February 2016   Received: 9 March 2016   Travelled: 14 days

Human zoo

thanks to Eurgenie from US who sends this satire art from a  Milanese artist.

It reminds me of my time buying some art cards in Florence years ago.

If you look carefully there are two versions, animals in cages or people in

cages.

Sent: 28 December 2015   Received: 12 January 2016   Travelled: 15 days

Padova, Italy

The city is picturesque, with a dense network of arcaded streets opening into large communal piazze, and many bridges crossing the various branches of the Bacchiglione, which once surrounded the ancient walls like a moat.

Padua is the setting for most of the action in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

Soure: Wikipedia

Thanks to Ellis via PostcardUnited for this beautiful aerial view of Padova!

Sent: 3 December 2015   Received: 17 December 2015    Travelled: 14 days

Christmas from Italy

Thank you dear Elisabetta for the Christmas Angels and beautiful stamps!!
Sent: 16 December 2015
Received: 5 January 2016
Travelled: 20 days

Cork postcard

An amazing envelope came from Italy last Friday. Inside was  a maxicard of 

Giro Italia an annual stage bicycle race and a Cork postcard of Sardinia. I always

 thought that Portugal was the only country to have Cork postcards so it 

was interesting to find out that cork is a highly regarded resource . 

Thank you dear Elisabetta for such colourful mail goodies and the 

Italian Europa CEPT: Toy stamp!!

Sent: 3 September 2015   Received: 11 September 2015   Travelled: 8 days

Harbour of Capri

Capri is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has been a resort since the time of the Roman Republic.

Some of the main features of the island include the following: the Marina Piccola (the little harbour), the Belvedere of Tragara (a high panoramic promenade lined with villas), the limestone crags called sea stacks that project above the sea (the Faraglioni), the town of Anacapri, the Blue Grotto (Grotta Azzurra), and the ruins of the Imperial Roman villas.

Capri is part of the region of Campania, Province of Naples. The town of Capri is the island's main population centre. The island has two harbours, Marina Piccola and Marina Grande (the main port of the island). The separate comune of Anacapri is located high on the hills to the west.
Source:Wikipedia

Thanks to Hughes from Belgium for this lovely vintage card of Capri

Sent:17 June 2015   Received: 13 July 2015   Travelled: 26 days

Roman Forum

The Roman Forum  is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum.

It was for centuries the center of Roman public life: the site of triumphal processions and elections; the venue for public speeches, criminal trials, and gladiatorial matches; and the nucleus of commercial affairs. Here statues and monuments commemorated the city's great men. The teeming heart of ancient Rome, it has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world, and in all history.

Many of the oldest and most important structures of the ancient city were located on or near the Forum. The Roman kingdom's earliest shrines and temples were located on the southeastern edge. These included the ancient former royal residence, the Regia (8th century BC), and the Temple of Vesta (7th century BC), as well as the surrounding complex of the Vestal Virgins, all of which were rebuilt after the rise of imperial Rome. A holiday of this name is still celebrated in the city of Groningen on 28 August to commemorate the breaking of the siege.
Souce: Wikipedia

The Roman Forum. You cannot imagine the joy I had of being in a place steep with 

ancient history and being in a place I had only ever read about in the encylopedia.

Thank you so much Elisabetta!

Sent: 8 July 2015   Received: 4 August 2015   Travelled: 27 days

Papa Francesco

Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the 266th and current Pope of the Catholic Church, a title he holds ex officio as Bishop of Rome, and Sovereign of the Vatican City.

 Source:Wikipedia

Yay! My first Pope postcard. Thanks to Agostino via postcrossing

for this special postcard!

Sent: 8 July 2015   Received: 31 July 2015   Travelled: 23 days

Verona meetup

Super thanks to Salvatore for the meetup card of Verona held on 23 May 2015.

Love the comic stamps on the card! 

Sent: 6 May 2015   Received: 9 June 2015   Travelled: 33 days

Tuscan cigars

Thanks to Elisabetta who found the great stamps and beautiful vintage reprint of Cigar Ladies 

from Florence.

Sent: 17 April 2015   Received: 6 May 2015   Travelled: 19 days

Capo Caccia,Sardinia

In Alghero, a dialect of Catalan is spoken, introduced when Catalan settlers repopulated the town after the Crown of Aragon conquered the city from the Genoese in 1353 and subsequently expelled the indigenous population. Catalan was replaced as the official language by Spanish in the 17th century, then by Italian. The most recent linguistic research conducted showed that 22.4% of the population speak Algherese Catalan as a first language and around 90% have some understanding of the language. Currently, there has been a revival of the arts in Algherese Catalan, with singers such as Franca Masu performing original compositions in the language.

It is noted, however, that after the rural exodus of the surrounding villages towards the city, much of the population speaks or has some proficiency in Sardinian as well, in addition to Italian and Catalan. Historically, moreover, the spread of Catalan was limited to the city "Intra Moenia" and part of the coast, given that the countryside has always been highly frequented by the Sardinian speaking-community (as evidenced by the place names: Sa Segada, Sa Londra, Pala Pirastru, etc.).

Thanks to Silvan for this beautiful view from your trip to Sardinia!

Sent: 21 April 2015   Received: 6 May 2015   Travelled: 15 days

Hadrian's Mausoleum

The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. The building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle, and is now a museum. The Castel was once the tallest building in Rome.

The tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian, also called Hadrian's mole, was erected on the right bank of the Tiber, between 134 and 139 AD. Originally the mausoleum was a decorated cylinder, with a garden top and golden quadriga. Hadrian's ashes were placed here a year after his death in Baiae in 138, together with those of his wife Sabina, and his first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who also died in 138. Following this, the remains of succeeding emperors were also placed here, the last recorded deposition being Caracalla in 217. The urns containing these ashes were probably placed in what is now known as the Treasury room deep within the building. Hadrian also built the Pons Aelius facing straight onto the mausoleum – it still provides a scenic approach from the center of Rome and the right bank of the Tiber, and is renowned for the Baroque additions of statues of angels holding aloft elements of the Passion of Christ.

A really special postcard which arrived to my mailbox. it's a folded postcard.

On the front it shows what it would have looked like in ancient Roman times and 

lifting the tab to open this card, you come to the second page of how it actually looks

like now, thanks so much to Elisabetta for this super cool card!

Sent:13 April 2015   Received: 6 May 2015   Travelled: 23 days

David

David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504, by Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet Michelangelo.

It is a 4.34-metre (14.2 ft), 5.17-metre (17.0 ft) with the base marble statue of a nude standing male. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence. Originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, the statue was placed instead in a public square, outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of civic government in Florence, where it was unveiled on the 8th of September, 1504.

Because of the nature of the hero it represented, the statue soon came to symbolize the defense of civil liberties embodied in the Republic of Florence, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici family. The eyes of David, with a warning glare, were turned towards Rome.The statue was moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, in 1873, and later replaced at the original location by a replica.

Thanks to jcluc for this postcard sent from France (postcrossing)

Sent: 4 February 2015   Received: 24 Febraury 2015   Travelled: 20 days

Naples, Italy

Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC. A larger colony – initially known as Parthenope, Παρθενόπη – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages.The city was refounded as Neápolis in the sixth century BC and became a lynchpin of Magna Graecia, playing a key role in the merging of Greek culture into Roman society and eventually becoming a cultural centre of the Roman Republic.Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, serving as the capital city of the Kingdom of Naples between 1282 and 1816. Thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. During the Neapolitan War of 1815, Naples strongly promoted Italian unification.

Thank you Tom for the beautiful view card from Naples!

Sent: 21 October 2014   Received: 7 November 2014   Travelled: 17 days

Catania, Sicily

Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the Province of Catania, and is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.

Catania is known for its seismic history, having been destroyed by a catastrophic earthquake in 1169, another in 1693, and several volcanic eruptions from the neighboring Mount Etna volcano, the most violent of which was in 1669.

Catania has had a long and eventful history, having been founded in the 8th century BC.In 1434 it witnessed the opening of the first university in Sicily. Then in the 14th century and into the Renaissance, Catania was one of Italy's most important and flourishing cultural, artistic, and political centers.

Thanks to Lana for this beautiful postcard from her recent trip to Italy. 

Sent: 1 October 2014   Received: 14 October 2014   Travelled: 13 days