Italia

Just in time for the Olympics (although now they are already over) I received this beautiful cover from Italy. Although it has only one stamp, I think that it is a very interesting piece since the stamp celebrates the Olympics in Beijing with a very interesting design.

The stamp is one of the two stamps in the “Lo sport Italiano” (Italian Sports) series dedicated to the Olympic Games - Beijing 2008 and issued on 07 Jul 08. The € 0.85 stamp features a disc framed in by a Greek border on the left and a floral border (typically Chinese) on the right. On the left-hand side of the disc, there are some figures of athletes similar to those designed on Ancient Greek ceramics; on the right-hand side there are some athletes depicted in the Chinese style of illustration. The five Olympic rings are pictured in the centre of the disc.

I really like the design of this stamp since it subtly signifies the meeting of East and West while at the same time showing that the two have very different histories and heritages, as demonstrated by the delineation of the two different styles (the Greek and the Chinese). Also, the fact that Italian has an actual translation for Beijing, which is "Pechino" from Beijing's old name of Peking, shows that China and Italy have shared a rather long history together. In fact, it all began with Marco Polo in the 1200s.t I'm a sucker when it comes to these kinds of things, so I'm not sure if many/any others can relate?

The stamp was canceled with a beautiful postmark (with a depiction of Livorno, I guess) at Livorno on date of issue, 07 July 08. A coincidence or not: the stamp was issued 07.07 and the Olympics started 08.08?