Hi everybody! I did several swaps in early January with Italian postcrossers, and all of my cards have arrived to them, but I’ve only received one in return. Is this normal? On average, do American or Italian postcrossers know how long it’s taking mail to go between the two countries right now?
Thanks for the help!
Claire
Here are top 3 postcrossers in Italy. You can check their average sent and received time from Italy to USA, vice versa.
From their statistics on Jan - March 2022, cards from US to Italy arrived faster than cards from Italy to US.
A lot of Italian postcrossers in the last several months/maybe one year have been lamenting that their cards to the USA take incredibly long. Most go expired. So unfortunately, it is somewhat normal. It’s only been a couple of months which seems very much in range from what I heard.
More than the average for a member, I would look at the single records for the last year or so, because as far as I understand it used not to take this long so the average over many years would be better than the current average.
I sent two cards to the USA the first days of January and they’re still traveling.
I sent several cards in January and the first two arrived only last week (to European countries), so I think we have a problem delivering mail, while cards seems to arrive with smaller delays.
Oh yes, I hear this about all countries when sending from Italy, not just the USA. But the USA seems extreme in terms of delays and in terms of difference between incoming mail and outgoing mail.
I sent from Italy in January and almost everything arrived within about a month which I found pretty good. Yes, a month is good 
I have no news of the only card I sent to the USA back then, it wasn’t an official.
I was in Italy in January and sent 4 official postcards to USA, all of them are still traveling after 47 to 57 days already gone. Most of the cards to Germany already arrived, but not every, to Netherland is still traveling and only 1 of several cards to Russia arrived.
Not Official cards, but Forum swaps and private swaps, you should expect a few weeks before delivery.
2020 & 2021 have been terrible years for cards from Italy to USA , mine have almost all expired… I have now three travelling since January. Same thing happens to friends here. The problem is in the American delivery. Cards in envelope and sender’s address sometimes come back.
Not Italian, but in my experience sending to the USA, the wester it goes, the longer it takes until you arrive to the west coast. I don’t know why, but that also goes fast. Midwest takes ages. But Illinois… I’ve checked on my sent ones and it took about 17 days, but that was befor COVID. If the Italian postcards got stuck somewhere due to quarantine or something…
I live in Italy and in my experience with US (just two cards, very little experience, I know), postards usually takes about 40 days from Italy to reach US, but I’ve also noted that they usually take much longer from Italy to any foreign country than the reverse. I’ve been struggling for months with swaps. I’ve already received others’ postards, while mine are still somewhere on the road. Quite disappointed for this, honestly. 
I just received a direct swap yesterday from a friend in Italy that was sent on 07 January 2022. So there is a current single data point for you.
as an italian i must sadly confirm that it takes a long time for a postcard from italy to reach an american mailbox 
40-60 days, sometimes more or they get lost somewhere along the way
Oh gosh, looks like I’ve got some more waiting to do! Thank you all for helping me. Fingers crossed I receive the cards! 
Add some dp here, I received two postcards yesterday(3/7/2022) from end of December last year and end of this January 
Last year, I also received two cards from Italy at the same day on end of November, one from end of September and one from mid of October. So maybe they stocked up mails, and just not sending out mails that frequently(that’s just my hypothesis)
I’ve only sent 1 to Italy and it took 17 days. The one I mailed in January is still traveling and will expire tomorrow. I haven’t received any cards from Italy yet,
All the cards I had coming to me from Italy arrived recently! They took around 2 months. Thanks for the help everybody.
USA - Italy mail is a mystery!
While I have received card from the US in 7-10 days, my postcards to the US usually takes biblical times. To give an idea, my last official card were received after 84, 86 and 101 days
60 days!!