ITALY - Italian Republic - Repubblica Italiana

Italy (Italian: Italia), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana ) is a European country consisting of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands. Italy is located in south-central Europe, and it is also considered a part of western Europe. A unitary parliamentary republic with its capital in Rome, the country covers a total area of 301,340 km² (116,350 sq mi) and shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. Italy has a territorial exclave in Switzerland (Campione) and a maritime exclave in Tunisian waters (Lampedusa). With around 60 million inhabitants, Italy is the third-most populous member state of the European Union.

Italy has the highest level of faunal biodiversity in Europe, with over 57,000 species recorded, representing more than a third of all European fauna. Italy's varied geological structure contributes to its high climate and habitat diversity. The Italian peninsula is in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea, forming a corridor between central Europe and North Africa, and has 8,000 km (5,000 mi) of coastline. Italy also receives species from the Balkans, Eurasia, the Middle East. Italy's varied geological structure, including the Alps and the Apennines, Central Italian woodlands, and Southern Italian Garigue and Maquis shrubland, also contributes to high climate and habitat diversity.

Italian fauna includes 4,777 endemic animal species, which include the Sardinian long-eared bat, Sardinian red deer, spectacled salamander, brown cave salamander, Italian newt, Italian frog, Apennine yellow-bellied toad, Aeolian wall lizard, Sicilian wall lizard, Italian Aesculapian snake, and Sicilian pond turtle. There are 102 mammals species (most notably the Italian wolf, Marsican brown bear, Pyrenean chamois, Alpine ibex, crested porcupine, Mediterranean monk seal, Alpine marmot, Etruscan shrew, and European snow vole), 516 bird species and 56,213 invertebrate species.  The flora of Italy was traditionally estimated to comprise about 5,500 vascular plant species. However, as of 2005, 6,759 species are recorded in the Data bank of Italian vascular flora. Italy is a signatory to the Berne Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats and the Habitats Directive both affording protection to Italian fauna and flora.

As Italy was not unified until 1861, its early postal history is tied to the various kingdoms and smaller realms that ruled in the peninsula. The first postage stamps in Italy were also issued by the Sardinian kingdom. In 1850, Count Camillo Cavour drafted a report to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia proposing postal reform along the lines of that which had been adopted in several European states, and providing for the introduction of postage stamps, for which a new word - francobollo - was coined. The reform became law in November, and went into effect 1 January 1851. Following Sardinia, other Italian states also issued stamps. These include Tuscany (April 1851), the Papal States (January 1852), Modena (June 1852), Parma (June 1852), Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Naples - January 1858; Sicily - January 1859), Romagna (September 1859) . In the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom under the Austrian Empire, stamps were also issued with denominations in the local currency. Following the unification of Italy during 1860 and 1861, stamps in use in each of the territories that joined Italy were withdrawn from circulation and replaced with the stamps of the Sardinian kingdom.

Until 1929, all definitive stamps were issued with the portrait of the king or the coat of arms. In April 1929, the so-called "Imperial Series" ("Serie Imperiale") was released, the first definitive series of Benito Mussolini's fascist government. n 1943, the Germans set up the Italian Social Republic (RSI) in northern Italy, a Nazi puppet state with Mussolini installed as leader after he was rescued by German paratroopers. Italy became a republic after a referendum held on 2 June 1946. In 2007, the issue of an Italian stamp featuring the Croatian city of Rijeka caused a controversy. The stamp referred to the city in its usual Italian name of Fiume, claiming it was former Italian territory. This is seen as offensive in Croatia.

The Italian Islands of the Aegean were the Italian possession in the Dodecanese from 1912 to 1945. Italian stamps overprinted "Egeo" and "Isole Italiane dell' Egeo" were issued for the Islands. Stamps were also issued for the individual islands: Calchi (Karki), Calino (Calimno), Kasos (Caso), Cos (Coo), Leros (Lero), Leipsoi (Lisso), Nisyros (Nisiro), Patmos (Patmo), Tilos (Piscopi), Rhodes (Rodi), Karpathos (Scarpanto), Symi (Simi), and Astypalaia (Stampalia). Campione d'Italia is a small Italian exclave surrounded by Switzerland near Lake Lugano. The municipal council issued its own stamps in May 1944. The stamps were inscribed "RR Poste italiane / Comune de Campione" and denominated in the Swiss currency. Campione stamps were withdrawn in 1952. Since then, mail may be sent using either Swiss stamps or Italian stamps.

This registered airmail cover sent by Mihnea, during his visit in Italy. The covers posted on July 07, 2016 and I received them on July 21, 2016.