Talk about SNAIL MAIL!
 

Today three postcards arrived at their destination here in Cape Town, they were posted by me four and a half months ago (14 April) in Lucca Italy!!! Now that's really snail mail!!!
I have never had mail take that long before, amazing! I posted cards from all over Italy and not one arrived before I got home, but they all arrived within a week of my return, so none took longer than a month to get here. The ones posted in the UK all arrived within a week.

Can anyone beat this record?

The Italian mail service has long been deemed "the Worst in The World".

Zeus, I've heard that before, now I know it's true but that won't stop me going back again and again if I can :-) Actually, I'm really thinking of doing a quick side trip from Austria when I'm there in January.

Just a tip for ny postcards senders. If you really want them to get back to your friends before you do, put them in an envelope and spend few more pennies on first class mail. It never fails. No matter where you mail them from, it shouldn't take more than 5-7 business days with first class mail.

A postcard with bulk postcard postage rate is an open invitiation for a trip around the world in a container ship that makes a stop at every port along the way with yours being the last. :-)

I could beat your story. Few years back I mailed a postcard from Paris to Sarasota, Florida and it arrived about 1 year later. I bet it had many stories to tell if it could only talk.

Awww... and I thought it couldn't get worse than my story. A year sure takes the cake AA!!
I would expect that kind of thing to happen in strange out of the way places and although I haven't been traveling too remotely it didn't happen in Egypt or even little backwater towns in Swaziland, etc.
I think your envelope idea sounds very good and I'll sure try that next time.

two yeara go some postcards a friend mailed from Rome arrived in December and they wer mailed in July, but we have a feeling that the desk person they were lkft with (at the hotel) stashed them and forgot them until someone did some clenaing :)