Back again:-)

It's been some time since my last December post, and I would like to apologise for the silence caused at first by Christmas holidays, then by malfuctioning Windows which has resulted in my switching to Linux with the related necessity to learn new computer tricks and launching new programmes to handle the scanner and graphics programmes. We also had to overcome a chain of spring childhood diseases, so I was forced to actually abandon my hobby, which, fortunately, makes itself heard again with renewed force. Even if we are expecting a baby any day now, I hope to stay here again.

I've received a lot of fantastic covers and there are dozens of them waiting to be shown here, and to be sent too, especially to a few patient friends who have not heard from me for a long time (Latvia, Argentina...). There has been also a number of new Czech stamps which I will show here too.

Thank you for your support and continuing interest!

Cover from Russia no. 10

Another great cover from Alex (Astrakhan)! A complete series of three stamps dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Russian Research of Antarctica, issued on 26 January 2006, with a map of Antartica and showing the Obj Diesel-electric Ship, the Il-76TD transport aircraft and the research expedition ship “The Academician Feodorov", and the scientific investigations, the under the ice research, the sledge transport train. The letter was sent on 15 January 2010. Thank you, Alex!

Cover from Italy no. 3

Thank you, Giovanni, for this splendid registered cover received a few days ago! Apart from the two excellent and informative books on Venezia, there is this miracle of contemporary Italian stamp production - stamps of various materials, ranging from traditional paper to silk.

The trio of light brown stamps on the left are in fact adhesive wooden sheets or foils (lamine di legno) without perforation, issued on 2 July 2007 in 1.5 million pieces. The stamp shows the Basilica di San Vincenzo in Galliano near Cantù in northern Italy (Province di Como), which was consecrated in 1007.

The other three self-adhesive geography-related stamps feature famous places in Europe, issued in a booklet on 25 October 2009 on the occasion of "The Day of Europe" (Giornata dell'Europa), they are: Pont du Gard in France, Hadrian's Wall in Great Britain and the Roman Odeon in Patras in Greece. The stamps also bear a logo of Italia 2009 - International Festival of Philately.

The largest stamp sheet was issued on 20 November 2001, and is made entirely of silk. Wow, it wouldn't have even occurred to me there could be anything like that! The stamp (or francobusta, as the Italian Post also called it) is self-adhesive and shows a picture of the Lake and City of Como in northern Italy, in Province of Como, not far from Milan, which is known as "cittá della seta - city of silk".

The rest of the postage is covered by the some of the current female heads definitives.

And there is much more to come from Italy!

Grazie mille, Giovanni!!!