COVER N.128 - ITALY

Postmark: Naoniscon Pordeno de Games & Comics 33170 Pordenone S. Caterina - C 08.05.22
Posted on the 5th June; received on the 20th June 2022
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The first interrogation this nice cover motivates is "What is this nice postmark about?" Thank you so much, Ivan, you managed to spur my curiosity again!

Games, video games and board games. These days and especially since  Manga and Anime Comics began to become a global affair, there seems to be  an ever increasing connection between games and comics, so much so that games convention are now games and comics conventions where cosplay also takes an important place.

I have to confess  today's mainstream comics are really not cup of tea, (There's a limit to how many super heroes one can take, right?). Yes, I know, I'm a square old fool, but for me there are but 4 or 5 super heroes: Batman and Robin; Superman; the Phantom; the Green Archer; and YES, the greatest of them all: Battler Britton or should I say Major Jaime Eduardo de Cook e Alvega, as the Royal Air Force Ace of aces was named in Portugal, where he flew in the pages of the weekly “O Falcão”,  and where he was even given Portuguese ancestry, as a tribute to our long standing alliance with the UK....

The thing today with super heroes is that they are mostly a by product of cinema special effects and vice-versa. Alvega, had no other superpower than his incredible ability to fly all the aircraft on the inventory and use them to down Messerschmitts 109s as  kids and adults alike nowadays down the irritating popcorn while the unlucky few who do care about what’s going on the screen try hard to concentrate amidst the special effects sounds of teeth munching and that lovely sound reminiscent of a visit to the dentist of coke being aspired through a straw…..

Anyway, by now I'm sure you have guessed that the postmark on the cover is a commemorative stamp celebrating this year's edition , the 25th - of NaonisCon - Pordenone Games&Comics, a games and Comics convention held in the city of Pordenone in Italy's northern region of Friul-Veneza Júlia, incidentally considered in 2020, to be the best city in Italy to live in, according to a raking established by ItaliaOggi and the University of  La Sapienza of Rome, so I read.

Two stamps on the cover:

The first ever Winter Olympics took place in 1924 in Chamonix, France. From then on, just like it happens with the summer counterpart, every four years, with the exception of a twelve year period due to the second world war, athletes from around the world would gather at a country chosen by the International Olympic Committee as the organiser of the Games. February this year saw the Olympic Flag being raised in Benjing, China for a 25th edition still affected by the ongoing pandemic and by the now usual boycotts that are so traditional, that the IOC should turn boycotting into an Olympic discipline in my humble opinion. 

The 2006 Winter Olympics were held in Turin, Italy. To celebrate the fact, la Poste Italiane issued on 08FEB2006 a 9 stamp souvenir sheet dedicated to the event, each stamp illustrated with a motive  representing one of the Olympic disciplines and the Games Logo.

The stamp on my cover is the one with the lesser face value of the lot (0,23€) and  is dedicated to the Biathlon, a discipline that brings together cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. the other stamps in the set are skating (o,45€); Ice Hockey (0,65€); Curling (0,70€); Bobsled (0,85€); Alpine Skiing (0,90€); the Olympic Flame (1€) and Tobogganing (1,30€).

Every Easter Sunday, at San Cataldo, in Sicily, a procession of 11 Sampaoloni, huge 3 metre tall figures of papier-mâché representing the apostles (Judas, the traitor is not given the honour of participating in the procession)  takes to the street to meet the resurrected Jesus, his holly mother and Mary Magdalene.

On 05JUNE2020 la Poste Italiane issued the self adhesive Tariff B (domestic, up to 20g) stamp on my cover, as part of the series "Le festività" (Festivities) dedicated to the festival of the Sampaloni of San Cataldo. The beautiful stamp is illustrated with an image of the procesion of the Sampaoloni while the clock tower of the Chiesa del Rosario (the Church of the Rosary) dominates the background.