The Vatican Post Office

After we left the Sistine Chapel there were a few more small rooms to go through. Here we saw this crucifix. And this stained window. Once we had completed the tour of the Vatican Museums we returned our headsets and headed to the gift shop. One of my co-workers had asked me if I could pick up a rosary for her and of course I wanted to get something for myself. Shannon also wanted to get some stuff. As we started to look around Shannon decided she wanted to get some rosaries for her family. We started to look at the glass bead rosaries and they were so pretty. We were trying to decide which color to get, which ones we liked better, and then I found this rosewood one. The beads were red and carved into roses and smelled sweet. Once I saw that one, I was sold and that was the one I got. Shan ended up getting that one as well along with a couple of the colored ones. I found a magnet for myself and we got in line to check out.

While we were waiting in line there was this woman looking at these silver and either black onyx or hematite beads. She was trying to decide how many to purchase and holding up the line. They were absolutely gorgeous, and if my currency conversion was correct about $200 each. I am not sure how many she got, but her total was well into the thousands. Once she checked out, the line moved quickly, and we were on our way.

One of Shannon’s co-workers asked her to get a Vatican stamp. We were trying to figure out where to find the stamp when we saw a sign for the Vatican post office. I had no idea that they had their own Post Office – it makes sense, but I had never thought about it before.

The Vatican post office has operated its own postal service and issued its own postage stamps since 1929. Much, but by no means all, of the mail handled by the Vatican is from tourists or official congregations of the Roman Curia. Many Romans, distrustful of the unreliable Italian post office, make weekly trips to the Vatican just to post their important letters. Italian stamps may not be used on Vatican mail nor vice versa. According to the Universal Postal Union, the Vatican post office is "one of the best postal systems in the world" and "more letters are sent each year, per inhabitant, from the Vatican's 00120 postal code than from anywhere else in the world."

There was not much of a line and we quickly got a stamp. I did not mail anything from the post office, but will have to next time.

After that, we left the Vatican Museum complex to go back to St. Peter’s square and into St. Peter’s Basilica.