In English - Buying Stamps in Italy

Language & Geographical Communities Italian - Italiano
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Dear non-Italian friends, here is some information on how to obtain stamps when you are travelling in Italy.

Where to buy stamps:
translation of the list originally compiled by @Jupie

A ) “TOBACCONISTS” - here is an explanation of what it is and a picture to recognise them. Nowadays, it appears that they don’t always have stamps, or they might try to sell you GPS stamps.

BEWARE: GPS stamps are NOT issued by the Italian postal service, it is a private company. Their postboxes are yellow and not red like the standard ones. Their stamps are more expensive and less reliable.

B ) POST OFFICES - availability of stamps may vary.

C ) POST OFFICES WITH A PHILATELIC DESK - you don’t need to queue for it like for the other desks, it is a dedicated desk with a dedicated member of staff.
A list can be found here: https://www.poste.it/sportelli-filatelici.html

D ) PHILATELIC STORES (SPAZI FILATELIA)
List here: https://filatelia.poste.it/spazi-filatelia.html

E ) ONLINE - POSTE ITALIANE WEBSITE
You will need to have an account and log in. PLEASE NOTE: they do not deliver outside of Italy
https://filatelia.poste.it/retail

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Cost of stamps for postcards and letters (up to 20 grams):
(post last updated 4 March 2023)

- within Italy (+ San Marino and Vatican): 1,20 euro

- zona 1 (Europe - includes Russia and UK, and Mediterranean countries): 1,25 euro

Albania, Andorra, Austria, Azzorre, Belgio, Bielorussia, Bosnia-Erzegovina, Bulgaria, Cipro, Croazia, Danimarca, Estonia, Isole Faroe, Finlandia, Francia, Germania, Gibilterra, Gran Bretagna, Grecia, Guernsey, Irlanda, Islanda, Jersey, Lettonia, Liechtenstein, Lituania, Lussemburgo, Macedonia del Nord, Malta, Isola di Man, Moldavia, Monaco, Montenegro, Norvegia, Olanda, Polonia, Portogallo, Repubblica Ceca, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovacchia, Slovenia, Spagna, Svezia, Svizzera, Turchia, Ucraina, Ungheria

Algeria, Egitto, Giordania, Israele, Libano, Libia, Marocco, Tunisia

- zona 2 (other countries in Africa, Americas, other countries in’Asia): 2,40 euro

Angola, Ascension - Isole (Uk), Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Camerun, Capo Verde, Ciad, Comore, Congo (Rep. Popolare), Costa D’Avorio, Eritrea, Etiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Gibuti, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Equatoriale, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambico, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Repubblica Centrafricana, Repubblica Del Congo, Reunion (Isole), Ruanda, Sant’Elena (Isola Di), S. Tommaso E Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sud Africa, Sudan, Sud Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Territorio Britannico dell’Oceano Indiano, Togo, Tristan Da Cunha, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bonaire - (Antille Olandesi), Brasile, Canada, Cayman Islands, Cile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falklands (Isole), Giamaica, Grenada, Groenlandia, Guadalupa, Guantanamo Bay, Guatemala, Guyana, Guyana Francese, Haiti, Honduras, Martinica, Messico, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Porto Rico, Repubblica Dominicana, Saba - (Antille Olandesi), Saint Barthelemy - (St. Barth), Saint Eustatius - (Antille Olandesi), S. Cristoforo, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre & Miquelon, Saint Vincent (E Granadines), Samoa Britanniche, Sint Maarten, South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands, Stati Uniti, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks And Caicos, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vergini (Isole), St. Tomas & St. Croix

Afghanistan, Arabia Saudita, Armenia, Azerbaidjan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambogia, China, Corea Del Nord, Corea del Sud, Emirati Arabi Uniti, Filippine, Georgia, Giappone, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakistan, Kirghizistan, Kuwait, Laos, Macao, Maldive, Malesia, Mongolia, Myanmar (o Birmania), Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tagikistan, Taiwan, Thailandia, Timor Est, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

- zona 3 (Oceania): 3,10 euro

Australia, Cook (Isole), Fiji (Isole), Guam, Kiribati, Marshall (Isole), Micronesia (Isole Caroline), Nauru, Niue, Norfolk Island, Nuova Caledonia, Nuova Zelanda, Palau, Papua Nuova Guinea, Pitcairn, Polinesia Francese, Saipan (Isole Marianne), Salomone (Isole), Samoa, Scattered Islands, Terre Australi e Antartiche Francesi, Tokelau, Tonga (Isole), Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wake, Wallis & Futuna (Isole)

More information on other tariffs or for mail above 20 grams:
https://www.poste.it/prodotti/postamail-internazionale.html

(the original compilation is also @Jupie 's work)

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I add a little clarification : many Italian stamps don’t have the value (1,10 , 1,15 , 2,40… euro) wtitten on them. They are “forever” stamps and they have a code instead:

B stamps cost 1,10 euro and can ben used inside Italy (+ San Marino and Vatican)
Bzona1 stamps cost 1,15 euro and can be used to send to Europe
Bzona2 stamps cost 2,40 euro
Bzona3 stamps cost 3,10 euro

Stamps can be added and mixed between them. For example if you have a B (so 1,10 euro value) stamp you can add a small 0,05 euro stamp to get the correct rate to send a postcard to Europe

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In my experience a lot of tobacconists don’t carry the €2.40 or €3.10 stamps.
I need to buy stamps for €2.60 to send to zone 2.

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right, this is why we always suggest to buy - if possible - stamps in C ) post offices with a philatelic desk or in d) philatelic stores (one in every big city)

unfortunately, Italy does not issue many 2,40 euro stamps per year so they become ““rare”” quickly

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Thank you @elikoa for these posts :heart_eyes: great job! :clap::clap::clap::clap:

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What’s the best combination of stamps for Zona2 if no Zona2 stamp is available?

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1.10 + 1.10 + … what you find :stuck_out_tongue:

0.05 or 0.10 or 0.25 euro stamps are quite rare here
if you find them you can do the combination you want to reach 2.40 euro (or more)

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Just to give a feedback,I found it quite difficult to buy nice stamps.The philatelie counter in Padua has no stamps in display.Today in the afternoon it was closed.They showed me just one stamp for USA,no choice…Even in Venice not a single stamp on display…

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@Nandi108

We know it is so difficult unfortunately
As we said in the first comments on this topic, you can search for “spazi filatelia” - in Venice you can find one - so they can sell you more stamps than in the other cities (like Padua) because they are shops selling only stamps

Keep in mind that stamps for USA are very rare because Italy has not issued them for years and now they are sold out everywhere
But…
Starting from 27.6.2022 the price of the stamps will be different: to send a postcard from here to USA - for example - you can use 2 stamps with “B letter” on each, so there is so much variety

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Does this mean I can officially use any stamp for sending to any zone as long as the cost adds up to the required one? So like, using two B stamps for the US is okay even though they are meant to be used within Italy?

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@chlodowich Ciao Ludovico, welcome in Postcrossing.
You can use all the stamps issued in Italy from 1967 onwards (so it is also possible to use the old Italian lire stamps). The important thing is that the correct rate is reached or, at the most, exceeded.
For example, if you have to send in the United States up to 20 g by using ordinary international mail (Postamail Internazionale), the actual rate is € 2,40. To reach this rate, you can use directly one B zona2 stamp or two B stamps ( € 1,20 + € 1,20 = € 2,40) or any other combination of stamps whose sum of values is equal to or greater than the shipping rate you have to use.

If you need more information, don’t hesitate to ask (se parli italiano, in questa sezione del Forum puoi anche scrivere direttamente in italiano negli altri topic).

Happy Postcrossing :wink:

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Thank you! That is very nice to hear, as I do have some old ones laying around. I thought it’d be best to post in this english thread since it might help people from all over the world in case they need such info in the future :slight_smile:

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Hi all, I just updated the cost of postage (to Italy and Europe/zona 1) as I think it was out of date! Should be fine now (but someone living in Italy might want to double-check…).

I am going to Italy soon and was trying to catch up and realised this was no longer accurate, but should be fine now!

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Can anyone tell me what is the postage rate of this stamp? I have never seen the A stamp as I only saw B, B1, B2 stamps.

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20230525_2146451920×1440 168 KB

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@Tutubi

2.80 euro :slight_smile:

you can check here

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A series stamps are the priority ones. For example with a A stamp like yours you can send an envelope up to 100 g inside Italy, and it should be delivered in just 1 working day.

But really to send priority mail you need to add a label and register the mail at the post office. Otherwise the stamp work like a normal stamp worth 2.8 euro :slight_smile:

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If you have the special label and an A stamp as well, you can also post your letter in a mailbox.
I was given A stamps and labels the last time I went to the post office and I post my mail in a red mailbox as I usually do with all my cards/letters. All my mail has been regularly delivered the day after.

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Hi All. Thanks for all of the information. I will be traveling to Venice in a few months and want to make sure I understand correctly. It seems it is best to go to a post office with a philatelic desk to get stamps if I plan to mail to the US? I’m assuming I can send postcards from there as well? I’d also like to send to my penpal in the Netherlands. Which zone is that? Sorry, it’s difficult for me to read multiple lines of italicized text. Thanks for your help!