THE POST, THE UNEXPECTED WITNESS

Stamps, cancellations and envelopes can become unexpected witnesses. They tell events, periods, happenings that aren't obvious at a quick look; it’s necessary to look carefully to discover them.

The following sections demonstrate this. They show pieces of living history, tragedies and epics, based on a common theme: the presence of the Italian military corps in foreign countries and their role…a varied role, depending on the situations, periods, and locations. Thus, our soldiers have become trainers, peacemakers and mediators.

Recent events suggest some examples: Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, East Timor, ex-Yugoslavia, Albania ….. Going back into the past: Lebanon. But these are just the more recent events of a longer tradition that, through the presence of the Italian Red Cross in Korea in 1950, has its roots in the first decades of the last century, when our country was looking for its own place among the European powers.

The envelopes shown introduce such events and, above all, the human and material histories that are behind them: private and collective stories, little pieces of the story that becomes “Story” with a capital “S”.