Old It Postcards

Italy has been a tourist destination for a long, long time.

In fact, because of The Vatican, Rome might be the longest most continuously toured city on the planet.

Lately, the Little Leprechaun that doles-out the luck-of-the-lot has been especially kind.

So hang your Old IT Postcards PPCs out to view just like they were wet, clean laundry!

Via Madre Di Dio e Ponte Carignano = Mother-of-God Street & Carignano Bridge

Q/ What's with the 'via Cherbourg'? Were they recording where the next ship leaving Savona/Genoa would be headed?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Given the geography, by sea Cherbourg would have required threading Gibraltar and then "backtracking" around Spain and Portugal, while an overland route would be more directly "forward" toward the US. So this etiquette may be requesting a more direct route, probably overland to Cherbourg, thence across the channel to Portsmouth, and then by sea to New York and onward to Philly. Usually a "via" etiquette specifies a vessel, but since none is specified here, I infer it as an overland direction.

The message is charming. It sounds like the writer was stranded in Genoa for two days waiting on a ship, and perhaps that's why this image was chosen -- "this is what we have to deal with up here." And once on board, they would rapidly depart Lago Mediterranea, not even stopping in Gibraltar. Trying to make the best of it, they propose an excursion down the Amalfi coast--although a train and drive from Savona in one day sounds ambitious--after gorging on (exotic) strawberries. Nice life for 1908!

Overland? Across the Alps? Ouch!

A coastal tramp steamer (I actually keyed 'stamp teamer') that hit port-after-port on the coastline seems more likely to me than some torturous (and vastly slower) overland route. Note that s/he mentions that the boat will not stop at Gibraltor, which would be on such an all-coast-all-the-time route.

The trans-Atlantic crossing would begin at Cherbourg.

Too bad there are no other markings to indicate the route of travel, arrival in the USA, et al.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

On reflection I agree, except I think that the boat that's not stopping at Gibraltar is the one she will travel on, and that's currently in Naples, whereas the postcard is intended to go on some other vessel to reach the US.

ikeypikey - a mistaken impression of the importance of Rome and its Vatican City. You've been reading too much tourist (or religious) literature! *]

cj: Not my original thought. In https://goscf.com/t/37126#332952 Hieronymus points out:




Applying that Hieronymous Relativity principle to our case, Savona IT to Cherbourg FR by coastal tramp steamer was an LED (Land Equivalent Distance) (yes, I just made that up) of ... What? One hundred miles?

Q/ So the 'via Cherbourg' meant me, and not my postcard?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Here's a pretty street view of Firenze (Florence) IT, which demonstrates the advantage(s) that a pretty drawing or painting can have over a photograph (see Genova, above).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orsanmichele

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chies...Orsanmichele

Bonus: check out the size & clarity of the sender's handwriting!

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

On reflection, I suppose it is surprising that more tourists did not list more complaints on more postcards.

Il palazzo dell'Arte della Lana visto da via Calimala = the Wool Guild Hall in Firenze (Florence) IT.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arte_della_Lana

The same building, but from down the block:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._lana_01.JPG

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Sorry; I forget that not everyone can easily read cursive English, even when it is legible.

"Florence Oct 10, 1909
I wish you could see
everything I'm seeing.
Do these pavements
look narrow? They are
so much so that
two people can't walk
abreast on them, we
have to walk right in
the middle of the
street & the wagons
& horses try their best
to run over you."

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The card it titled "Cogne - Laghetto del Lauson - Stambecchi"

Cogne = town in IT Aosta Valley

Laghetti del Lauson (2,656 m) (mountain)

Stambecchi = Alpine Ibex

Channeling my Inner Target Shooter, my first thought was that these were steel target silhouettes.

Q/ Live animals at their favorite watering hole? Or, drawn on?

Either way, the reflections of the animals, mountains & ice are superb.

Q/ R you confident that you can work-out the date?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The east side of the Monreale Cathedral in Palermo, Sicily

http://www.tripadvisor.it/Attractio..._Sicily.html ... reviewed

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey



So much for Teutonic precision: the caption has a spelling error :)

Morreale (the correct name is Monreale) - Duomo (cathedral) - Lato Orientale (east side)



The imprint is from a publisher in Lipsia (Leipzig)



And the instructions are a gift!

Sul lato anteriore della presente si scrive soltanto l'indirizzo => On the front side of this writing only the address.

I was just happy to find a postcard with fishing nets, period, to add to that thread.

Turns-out that view from those steps has appeared in postcards, paintings, postcards of paintings ...

... http://www.galik.com/stanleygalik1922/photos/ ... even in a father's very nice ~WW2 postcard collection.

You can search Google Images for 'Marechiaro Napoli Italy' and marvel at the yield.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marechiaro_(Napoli) ... Yes, Virginia, there is a back-story for the window.

Meanwhile, the killer reads 'XXV FIERA MILANO / 14-29 GIUGNO 19__'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiera_Milano ... puts the first fair in 1923.

The coming of the 25th fair in 1948 works okay with the 1947 postmark, but I wish I could be certain of the day/month this collotype hit the mail.

Q/ Would the 'NAPOLI FERROVIA (railroad)' postmark be for the station or the train?

Q/ Whose chains are getting broken on that stamp?

Not bad for a Bargain Box Orphan.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey





Here is a painting of the same scene:



And a painting on a postcard of the same scene:



And an older photo postcard of the same scene: