For years now—let’s say since the concept of “mail” has existed—the post office in Italy has been the butt of jokes. You go there in the morning to send a package, buy some stamps, or send a postcard to your mom and you end up limping out of there just as the sun is falling below the horizon. Waiters in Italy can get you a carafe of the house red wine in a snap, but put that same person in a post office and it will suddenly feel like everything is moving in slow motion, giving new meaning to the phrase “Mediterranean pace.” But there’s a solution to this—perhaps you’ve even heard of it: the Vatican City post office.
After all, this is not Italy, this is Vatican City, a whole other, autonomous country. They do things different here, especially when it comes to sending mail. It’s also long been rumored that the Vatican post office is much more reliable—that the six million postcards they process every year are much more likely to reach their destination than the Italian post office. Using the Vatican City post office to send your postcards will give you more time to explore Rome and Vatican City.
The complicated creation of the Vatican post office
But first let’s give some historical context: Because of the cold war between the new and burgeoning Italian state and the Vatican (and the Papal State the pope was desperately trying to hold onto), from 1870 to 1929, the pope never left the Vatican, claiming to be a prisoner within his own house. The creation of a unified Italian state stripped the Church of the vast papal territories that stretched from the region of Lazio all the way north to Umbria, Le Marche, and eastern Emilia-Romagna, some 10,000 square miles in all. And the new Italian state began a form of passive-aggressive urban planning in the neighborhoods around the Vatican in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The square just north of the border of the Vatican was named Piazza Risorgimento, the name for the fight for Italian nationalism and unification, and new streets around the Vatican were tagged with Risorgimento-referencing names as well as historical figures like the medieval Cola di Rienzo, who had challenged the papacy.
Then, in 1929, with one swipe of a pen, the two sides reconciled; Pope Pius XI signed the Lateran Treaty, an accord with Benito Mussolini, essentially recognizing the other’s existence and setting the boundaries for the Church’s new state. Vatican City, the world’s smallest nation at 108 acres, was born. And so was the Vatican City postal service.
Reasons to use the Vatican post office
Today, the Vatican City post office is something of a tourist attraction. If you’re a pious person or sending a postcard to a devout Catholic, they might view a Vatican postage stamp as something of a holy artifact. Other tourists just dig the idea of sending a letter or postcard from the world’s smallest nation. And then, of course, there are the in-the-know travelers, the cognoscenti, who know that if you don’t want to linger for hours in an Italian post office just to send a few postcards, do it at the Vatican instead.
How to use the Vatican post office
First you have to find the Vatican post office, or poste vaticane, in the local parlance. There is a location in St. Peter’s Square—on the left-hand side of the colonnade. There is also a post office inside the Vatican Museums, but you’ll need a museum ticket to access that one. On St. Peter’s Square, you’ll spot it quite easily as the door is flanked by two iconic yellow poste vaticane post boxes.
You can buy postcards at basically any of the myriad of souvenir shops and stands that are sprinkled throughout Vatican City (or, in general, Rome). You can even buy them at the Vatican post office. Postage in Vatican City costs 1.25 Euros for postcards sent in Europe, 2.40 Euros to send a postcard to North America, South America, Africa, and Asia, and 3.10 Euros for postcards going to New Zealand and Australia. The post office is open Monday to Saturday from 8:30am to 6:30pm.
Once you have your stamp and have your postcard addressed, just plop it into that yellow post box and you’re done. It’s as easy as that. Then you can commence exploring Vatican City, perhaps even taking a unique guided tour of the Vatican to get some amazing insider information. From touring St Peters Basilica to the VIP Key Master’s Tour of the Vatican, our local guides will lead you on a tour you’ll never forget.