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 Roman Basilicas Issue of 1949: Santa Maria Maggiore (Scott 130) Saint Peter's (Scott E11) Saint John Lateran (Scott E12) I will start off by saying I am fairly certain that the vast majority of VPS members have at one time or another visited Rome and Vatican City, so I will not turn this into a report on my “summer vacation”. I finally made my first visit to Italy earlier this month, and it was truly awe-inspiring. During my two days in Rome, as the Jubilee Year winds down, I got to pass through three of the four Holy Doors (at the Basilicas of Saint Mary Major, Saint John Lateran and Saint Peter), tour the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, and do the requisite touristy things to check off a lot of bucket list items. Rome was very crowded, but it was a great time. What was a bit disappointing were my interactions with the Vatican Post Office. I had attempted to gain permission to visit the Vatican Central Post Office building, as VPS Webmaster Marvin Lanahan had done last year. After months of emails to contacts at the Post Office, it appeared I would be able to gain access. Unfortunately, it never came to pass. I ended up going to the post office near the exit to Saint Peter’s Basilica. Stamp supplies were low (there were no recent stamp issues available the day I was there), and a postal rate increase had been recently implemented. As a result, I needed to buy a mishmash of three older stamps to get to the new post card rate of 2.55 euros. The day I was there a new folder had also been released for the 75th Anniversary of the Dogma of the Assumption—none were available. The one fun thing I was able to accomplish was mailing issues of the latest Vatican Notes to Pope Leo XIV (free franking for mail sent to the pope) and Don Felice Bruno (head of the Postal and Philatelic Service). I am hoping to establish some lines of communication with Father Bruno so VPS can work with his office to promote Vatican philately. I am also hopeful the pope will reply to the letter I enclosed with his package, as he was prominently featured in the last issue of the Notes. However, the pope receives about 200 pounds of mail per day, so hopefully he finds my needle in that haystack. On returning home, I checked my outstanding orders with CFN—one order was placed in July and a second in September. Incredibly, one was being shipped—the September order. The older July order was still listed as “Processing in progress”. This week, I checked the order status again on the CFN website and it listed both my orders as "DELIVERED". Wishful thinking. When I checked the UPS tracking numbers for the two orders, all it showed was "Label Created" for both orders--UPS had not even received the packages. Very confusing and frustrating. CFN recently sent out an email addressing the confusion regarding the tariff and "de minimis" shipping issue, citing this as a reason for delays. However, the "de minimis" issue has apparently been resolved--and perhaps the floodgates will now open for the shipment of stamp orders (which should never have been subject to tariff restrictions). We would be interested in knowing what other VPS members have been seeing regarding their orders with CFN, and whether any members have actually received stamps since the reopening of the CFN website. It continues to be very frustrating dealing with both CFN and the Vatican Post Office (as my interactions reflect). It seems to come down to one word: communication. I hope my contact with Father Bruno will lead to better lines of communication between VPS and the Vatican Post Office, for the benefit of our members and enthusiasts of Vatican philately. I have conversed with him via email, so I hope we can build off that. The logjam regarding the receipt of orders from VPS is a real problem, and improved access to materials from the Vatican Post Office is essential to support our collections and to promote Vatican philately. Let's hope and pray things improve soon. |
