COVER N.180 - ITALY

Postmark: Pratovecchio AR C 52015 11.11.2022  
Posted on the 11th November, received on the 21st November 2022
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An oddly postmarked cover can add a touch of unexpectedness to the collection, I guess. Grazie Mille Roberto!

The theme for the 2004 EUROPA emission was "Holidays" and Poste Italiane chose to illustrate it on the two stamps (0,45 and 0,65 Euros) it issued on 07MAY2004 with the most iconic graphic representation of holidays that I can think of: a vintage traveller's suitcase, from the time when you could tell that a person was a well travelled  tourist from the number of hotel stickers one had on the suitcase.

The stamps both feature the same  suitcase, which on the 0,45€ stamp is closed and travelling on what is supposed to be some sort of path, a road, for instance, drawn on the background of the stamp which to my eye looks like wallpaper from an hotel room maybe, while on the 0,62€ stamp lays open upon a table, bed, maybe, at the hotel room, exhibiting the usual paraphernalia associated with holidays: hats, reading glasses, books, photo camera, travel guide, etc.

Both stamps are taken from the lower corners of the stamp sheet and on the edges they exhibit the logo of  Vastophil 2004, which I presume was a philatelic exhibition.

The postmark is the usual postmark on Roberto’s letters, from Pratovecchio.  

Given that the current international tariff is higher than the value of both stamps, a 0,18€ mechanical stamp was also applied to the letter, but it is imprinted on the lower left corner and not on the right upper corner as usual, so as not to mess up with the handwritten address, which is occupying this rather unusual position. Given the way the envelope had to be fed to the stamping machine  in order for the stamp to be applied at this position, it resulted in an upside down stamp...odd!