3248 ITALY (Lazio) - Second Postcrossing Meetup in Rome, 2 January 2018 - Colosseum

The italian postcrossers wanted to be the first ones this year, so they organized on 2 January the first meetup of this year. They met in Rome, at the Subway Station Piramide (Line B), and after that they went to Caffe Letterario, in Via Ostiense 95, to write and sign postcards. The postcard issued to mark this event depicted Colosseum to the transition between years (named by Italians La Festa di San Silvestro), with fireworks in the background. A nice, well-chosen photography.

2565 ITALY (Lazio) - Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le Mura (UNESCO WHS)

Founded, according to legend, by Romulus and Remus in 753 BC in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, along the shores of Tiber river, Rome was first the centre of the Roman Republic, then of the Roman Empire, and it became the capital of the Christian world in the 4th century. Regarded as one of the birthplaces of Western civilization, it is referred to as Roma Aeterna (The Eternal City) and Caput Mundi (Capital of the World), two central notions in ancient Roman culture.

1357 ITALY (Lazio) - Via della Luce in Rome

Via della Luce (the Way of Light) is a street in the Trastevere neighborhood in Rome, which took its name from the church of Santa Maria della Luce (Saint Mary of the Light). It was previously named Via delle Rimesse (the Way of Remittances), and also Via dei Morticelli. It received the current name following a miraculous event which took place in the year 1730. Legend has it that in a house located in the nearby alley Due Mole, which had on a outer wall an image of Madonna and Child, a blind man cried out for help because he heard noises like falling masonry. Suddenly the man "saw" on the wall the image of the Virgin surrounded by light and went out crying, mad with joy, "Light, light!" The image became the object of great devotion, and ultimately was detached from the wall of the house and transported in the church of St. Salvatore (Holy Saviour), which was rebuilt and dedicated to St. Mary of the Light.