Italy

An interesting cover here from Italy. The commemorative stamp on the upper right was issued on 12 Feb 08 and celebrates 100 years of the foundation of the first factory of the Olivetti Company. The Olivetti Company, an Italian producer of computers, printers, and other business machines, was founded in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin, as a typewriter manufacturer, hence the typewriter shown on the design.

Olivetti was famous for the attention it gave to design: "[a] preoccupation with design developed into a comprehensive corporate philosophy, which embraced everything from the shape of a space bar to the color scheme for an advertising poster." In 1952, the Museum of Modern Art held an exhibit titled "Olivetti: Design in Industry"; many Olivetti products remain part of the museum's permanent collection.

Olivetti is today known as Olivetti Technost and is under the Telecom Italia group, although it still maintains a separate identity. It operates in Italy and Switzerland, and has sales associates in 83 countries. Research and development are located in Agliè, Arnad, Carsoli, and Scarmagno in Italy, and Yverdon, Switzerland. Recently the company has started to sell again a line of office fax/scanners/printers devices.

I find it quite odd that a manufacturing company is being featured on a stamp. Perhaps the company has played a major role in the country's society? Frankly, I've never heard of Olivetti before. Are they well-known only in Italy and/or Europe?

The other three stamps on the lower left are most probably definitives as their use is common on Italian mail pieces that I receive and they have realtively low denominations.

The very nice postmark celebrates the 2008 Regate Internazinali, or International Regatta, which seems to be a series of boat races and rowing events held yearly in Genova by the Yacht Club Italiano. The cancel was applied on 26 April 08 at Livorno, a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. Some intersting things about Livorno:

• Livorno was defined as an "ideal town" during the Italian Renaissance.
• Politically, Livorno is one of the most left-leaning cities of Italy. The Communist Party of Italy21 January1921.
• Livorno inhabitants speak a colourful variant of the Tuscan dialect of Italy named vernacolo, which is especially characterized by the popular interjection dé, which has a very wide range of meanings, usually recognizable only by the tone of the pronunciation, and a tourist is soon discovered if they pronounce the word as dè, because it is not the correct pronunciation.