Postcrossing Meetup at 140th VERONAFIL Philately Exhibition

Veronafil is a biannual exhibition dedicated to philately, numismatics, postcards, phonecards, small antiques, prints, old books, and military collectibles. It is organized by the Associazione Filatelica Numismatica Scaligera and takes place every May and November at the Verona Exhibition Centre (Veronafiere).

From May 22nd to 24th, the 140th edition of Veronafil took place, and on Saturday, May 24th, a Postcrossing Meetup was held as part of the event.

I have been doing Postcrossing for many years, having started back in 2009, but I have never attended a meetup before, so it was quite an event for me. During meetups local Postcrossers come together to write and exchange postcards and stamps, catch up, explore the area and just have fun. Attending a meetup is a nice way to connect with the like-minded people, so I decided to try.

At first I was nervous mainly because of the language - all the Postcrossers who had planned to attend the meetup were either Italians or speaking like natives. But in the end I had nothing to worry about - my level was enough to understand what was being discussed and respond properly, or at least intelligibly.

The meetup went as planned: everyone arrived from their respective areas to the Exhibition Centre, then we gathered together at the tables in the bar area, wrote and signed postcards, exchanged latest news, had lunch and, of course, explored the exhibition.

I was really curious about this last part, since I haven’t attended such an event before. I was not particularly impressed though - maybe my expectations were a bit high - I had expected or rather wanted a lot of stands with different postcards, in reality however there were just a few of them, the majority of the stands present were about stamps and coins, so for those who collect either or both of the two, it would have been really interesting.

The stands offering postcards were those from the Italian post, from the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which I needed to look up because excuse my ignorance, I haven’t heard anything about, from the San Marino post and a stand from a private collector with vintage and used postcards.

Available vintage and used postcards from a private collector

I was very happy to find the San Marino post as when I visited San Marino last year, I didn’t buy or send many postcards, so it was a nice chance to fulfill the missed opportunity. I did just that, so there will be postcards coming to some of my friends with a San Marino stamp and cancellation!

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta didn’t have postcards per se, or maybe they had run out of them by the time I visited their stand but they did have something very similar to a postcard - I think for a collector, it could be quite an interesting item, so I aquired one of those - maybe I will keep it for myself in the end.

The Italian post had a lot to offer: a big choice of current stamps, maxicards issued in 2024, postcards dedicated to the 140th edition of the event with a special cancellation and latest collectible folders which usually contain a collectible stamp(s), a maxicard, an envelope with first-day cancellation and a note-bulletin with the information about the stamp and what it represents. Obviously, I did not miss my chance to enrich my collection and stock of stamps and postcards.

I also quickly visited the stand with the vintage and used cards but it was already late in the day and I did not feel like rummaging through the whole collection of what seemed like thousands of postcards - so it turned out to be the only postcard stand that I bought nothing from, which is okay, since I purchased more than enough at the other booths.

All in all, I was satisfied with my “adventure” for the day and I think I will attend more meetups in the future.

My many aquisitions at the Veronafil Exhibition