DON'T TRY THIS IN ROME...
Don't ever try to send an A4 brochure from Rome...
Why?
I picked up a "Phantom of the Opera" brochure in Copenhagen on May 16.th, for a guy in the US. The day after I felt for Rome, and planned to send it from there. Admittedly, I didn't do anything about it the first three days, but finally I showed up at the post office to send it.
I got the coldest look an employee has ever given me. Who did I think I was, showing up at the post office without wrapping the item first? I explained that I thought the post office was where they sold envelopes. It was most certainly not. The fairly grumpy lady told me to go to a book store. And so I did. In the first book stores I went to I had to mime "envelope" (harder than it sounds, I swear!) before I finally understood what the word was. But it didn't help me much. The book stores didn't carry envelopes, and certainly not one large enough for the brochure. They told me to go to... the post office. No kidding.
I tried a few regular grocery stores, but no.
At the end of my search two weeks had already passed. I decided to just wrap it well in paper instead, and so I did. And then I went out searching for stamps. I must have had the worst of luck, cause it was nearly impossible. So many places were out of stamps, some were closed, and the very last place I went actually refused to sell me (cause I would need a lot, and they didn't want to run out of stamps). Also, they pointed out, the mail boxes is too small to be able to squeeze the brochure/package into. So there...
Solution: visit the Vatican. Seek out their nice post office. Problem solved! And hopefully the brochure will get some blessing on its way as well....