Alpine Lakes and the Mail
Postal History Sunday #199
My how the time flies when you’re having fun. We are one more PHS entry away from number 200! I recognize that it’s just another number, but those of us who use base 10 for our counting can get unreasonably excited about this sort of thing. I mean, it’s not every time that you add one to a number and you get to change THREE whole digits. So, please allow me a few moments of celebratory writing and then we’ll move forward with other things.
I mentioned last week that Postal History Sunday is within striking distance of 200 subscribers. Well, we picked up five more people last week to get to 178. So, welcome to those five - and I wonder if we all have it in us to find 22 more interested people who might enjoy Postal History Sunday?
And now, put those troubles in a blender with some peas. Those troubles certainly won’t look the same afterward and we will have also achieved whirled peas (yeah, you might need to think about that a second). After that, grab a favorite beverage and maybe a snack. Keep them away from the old paper items and your keyboard.
Let’s see if we can learn something new!
A Book Seller Advertisement in 1863
This week we'll start with an advertisement for a book store in Milan, in northern Italy, to Morbegno - which happens to be further north in Italy.
So, why did I decide I wanted to add this particular item to my collection when I had an opportunity to do so? Well, there are some basic characteristics that drew my attention initially. It was mailed in 1863 in Western Europe, which is the sort of thing I prefer to look at in the first place. The cover itself is pretty clean, with postal markings that I can read. I appreciate the fine details of the postage stamp design. And, there are some contents that add extra interest.
The inside of this folded piece of paper shows a very simple preprinted advertisement for a bookseller who claimed to carry scholarly texts. The bookseller touted that they had access to books from Libreria Paravia, a bookshop that opened in 1802 and finally closed the doors to the brick and mortar store in 2020, in part due to the pandemic. There has been online activity as recently as 2021 under that name.
The cover, a folded letter sheet, shows the use of two copes of the 1 cent centesimi newspaper stamp issued by the Sardinian/Italian postal service in 1861. And, this item clearly illustrates the Italian printed matter rate for that time period (2 centesimi per 40 grams : Jan 1, 1863 - Dec 31, 1888).
And, I was going to pass on it. Why? Well, I had a nice example of a printed matter rate in Italy for that time period. So, while this was nice, I needed a better reason to add it to the collection.
Then I looked at the back:
I was sold as soon as I noticed the postal marking at the right. As you know by now, I often hope to find items that open a window or a door to some new (to me) aspect of postal history - and that marking does just that.
Watercraft on Lake Como
Postal history has a strong connection to geography because knowing the locations that a piece of mail visited as it traveled from point A to point B can uncover an interesting portion of the story. I was aware that this item might very well have traveled on some of the lakes in northern Italy to get to where it was going. This marking confirms that fact for me.
As you move toward Switzerland, the Alps dominate the landscape, limiting the options for safe, efficient travel and the carriage of mail. One of those options would be the deep, elongated lakes - lakes like Lago di Como (Lake Como). Como has a maximum depth over 1300 feet and has a "Y" shape, with one branch to the southwest. This branch features the city of Como at its southern-most point. Colico is located near the northern point of the Lago di Como.
This piece of mail was carried by rail from Milano to Como. It was then placed on a Lago di Como side paddle-wheel steamer at Como and traveled north to Colico. It was then carried by some sort of ground transportation to Morbegno.
The steamers Vittoria, Forza and Unione were all active on Lake Como in 1863, but I do not have access to a schedule that would tell me which one carried this particular piece of mail. If I had a guess, I would say that the (1) in the marking probably references the first voyage of the mail steamer from Como that day. Perhaps a specialist in the subject would be able to confirm (or deny) that and perhaps help to identify which ship carried this item?
To give you an idea of what these steamers looked like, the Vittoria is shown in the photo below.
So, how did I, a person who does not speak or read Italian (well, maybe a little, tiny bit of the latter) figure this out?
I knew where Como and Colico were. I knew the geography of the region and I didn't know a place called "Natante" nor could I find such a place when I perused period maps of the area. I was also aware of the history of transportation in the Alps and knew there could be some lake travel for mail in the region.
This illustrates two of the benefits that come with internet access for postal historians in the modern world. First, I have access to all sorts of maps that I can view. And, second, I can get immediate help with language translation. It turns out the word “natante” in the postal marking can be roughly translated to “watership.” Aha!
The above section of text was taken from an 1868 copy of Murray's Handbook for Travelers that featured travel to Italy. The route via Lake Como was one of several outlined for the traveler in that book. It is interesting to note that the steamer could go from Colico to Como in 3 1/2 hours (presumably with stops in between).
For those who have interest, this site includes information on Lago di Como steamers. The photo of the Vittoria shown above comes from that site.
Lago di Maggiore / Verbano
To the west lies another lake that provided transportation in the Italian and Swiss Alps using lake paddle steamers. Lake Maggiore holds its northern end within the borders of Switzerland, which gives us an opportunity to look at mail between two countries that was carried by lake mail steamers.
The northern and southern termini of the lake steamer route would be Magadino (Switzerland) and Arona (Italy), but we can actually find mail that got on or off the steamer at other stops on the lake if we are searching.
Shown above is a letter mailed from Roveredo, Switzerland, on March 30, 1864 and received at Pallanza, Italy, on March 31. It seems clear to me that this boarded a steamship at Magadino after being carried by land from Roveredo. This letter qualified for the special, discounted border rate between the two nations, so it took only 10 rappen (or centimes) for this letter to be paid to destination. (10 centimes per 10 grams : Jul 1, 1862 - Dec 31, 1875)
Like the prior piece of mail, this one included a hint that told me it was carried on a lake steamer. Can you see it?
The marking to the right reads: Verbano 31 Mag 64 No 2
What a person has to know is that Lake Maggiore is also known as Verbano. Once you have that piece of information, it is possible to learn more about the marking and how this mail traveled.
The other marking is the receiving postmark for Pallanza, which is situated on the shores of the lake.
Lago di Maggiore steamers made a circuit of the lake each weekday (and possibly the weekend by 1864), with a northbound leg and a southbound leg for each active ship. The Verbano marking includes a number that may indicate which ship carried the mail on that particular day. Later markings often included a direction with “ascendente” indicating the south to north route and “discendente” for the route from north to south.
From the same Murray's Handbook, we can see that the entire trip from Magadino to Arona typically took 4 1/2 hours in 1868.
Another, smaller piece of mail came along for the ride when I found this first item. It also features the 10 rappen border rate and carriage on Lake Verbano/Maggiore.
This particular piece of mail originated in Brissago, which is on the shores of Verbano, like its destination, Pallanza. Like many of the lake communities, Brissago still uses water transportation to get to and from other communities. There is a road that runs next to the edge of the lake for its entire length in the present day. But, that isn't an efficient solution if your destination is on the opposite shore.
Once again, if you look carefully, you can find two strikes of the Verbano marking on this folded letter, which identifies it as having been carried on a lake steamer. Sadly, this example is pretty difficult to read, so we can't tell if the ship number is different.
If you like to travel and are able to do so, a person could still ride on a paddle wheel steamer on these lakes. The Piemont (built 1904) can be chartered on Lake Maggiore. On Lake Como, you could find yourself on either the Concordia (built 1927) or Patria (built 1926). But, if it doesn't matter to you if you are on an old paddle-wheeler, there is still public transportation available on both lakes with a fairly complex ferry system.
I wonder if they still put bags of mail on some of them?
Thank you all for joining me for the 199th edition of Postal History Sunday. If you were visiting here because one of the fine people who subscribe to this publication shared this article with you, let me personally invite you to join us with a free subscription.
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Have a fine remainder of your day and an excellent week to come!
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