Reason #5367 to love Rome: Vatican stamp collecting

Vatican, RomeIt’s the rare visitor to Rome who doesn’t make his or her way to the Vatican. Visiting St. Peter’s and the Vatican Museum are highlights of any visit to the Eternal City. As most visitors know, Vatican City is actually its own state, separate from Italy, with its own Head of State – the Pope.

Vatican City also mints its own coins (it is within the euro zone), maintains its own postal service (since 1929) and issues its own postage stamps.

On your next visit to the Vatican, stop by at the post office (just next to the Visitor’s office, to the left of the main entrance to Saint Peter’s) to see the special issues of stamps and to mail your postcards, cancelled by the Vatican City postal service.

Vatican stampsOne of my children collects stamps, and I have other friends who collect cancelled Vatican stamps, so I’m often passing through the Vatican post office to purchase postage stamps or mail out letters.

It’s fun to see tourists from all over writing post cards, affixing their Vatican stamps and sending them off to all corners of the world.

With the rich collection of art at the Vatican – and within the Catholic church – the Vatican-issued stamps can be quite striking, including recently issued stamps from works by Caravaggio and Botticelli.

Vatican stampsFor serious collectors, there’s even a helpful on-line catalogue of issues from 1929 to the present.

So on your next visit to Rome and to the Vatican, be sure to stop by at the Vatican post office to buy postage stamps or mail out your postcards. Your stamp collecting friends will thank you and you couldn’t find presents easier to pack than these.

5 Comments

  1. ledrakenoir on August 21, 2013 at 9:51 am

    Stamps are a great hobby for many and many countries are doing a lot of work about their stamp Issues… 🙂

    • kimberlysullivan on August 21, 2013 at 4:31 pm

      True, Le drake. But still, one wonders with declining mail delivery if stamps may soon become a thing of the past. : (

      • ledrakenoir on August 22, 2013 at 8:49 am

        Yes wonder too – when “slow mail” become a thing of the past – what about stamps..?

  2. wordfoolery on August 24, 2013 at 4:01 pm

    Yep, we called by here on our recent trip to mail postcards to friends and family. I’d read online that the Vatican post was swifter than Italian and it certainly proved to be the case – our postcards took four days from Vatican to Ireland but four weeks from Rome to Ireland, despite all three countries being in the EU.

    • kimberlysullivan on August 28, 2013 at 4:04 pm

      Haha, Grace! When in Rome… Yes, the Vatican postal service is definitely more reliable. : )

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