Italian postcard delivered 51 years late

The card, which simply read “with warm greetings”, was sent to Alessandro Scarpellini by a neighbour, who was holidaying in Ostia, the seaside town near Rome, in 1962.

His son was left bemused by the postcard, which was sent to the home address in Brescia with a 15-cent (in lire) stamp, as his father died 20 years ago, Articolo Tre reported.

He drew the assumption that the lost-long card was left to languish on a post office shelf during the intervening years, before being found and delivered to its recipient.