The 39th Day of Aerophilatelia took place on September 21st, 2007 in Vasto, after some AIDA members exhibited their collections in competition at Milanofil, the traditional spring event, enjoying flattering successes. The choice of Vasto, a beautiful town in southern Italy (it should be noted that only in 1995 the AIDA went further down, up to Bari) was also the concomitance with Vastophil 2007, the National Philatelic Exhibition, including, among others, the “Aerofilatelia” class.
The AIDA President, Costantino Gironi did his utmost for the success of the event and, it must be said, everything took place in the best possible way, in a joyful and enthusiastic atmosphere among the members present and the large audience.
The “Day” had as its theme the 90th anniversary of the Turin-Rome-Turin flight, carried out by the young lieutenant Mario De Bernardi, at the controls of a Pomilio C1 two-seater plane. Regarding this experimental flight, it is interesting to report a presentation of it made on May 16, 1917 by the newspaper La Stampa of Turin, which published an article entitled: “Air mail from Turin to Rome”:
“A communiqué from the higher management of post and telegraphs says that on 20 corr. the experiment of postal air transport will take place from Turin to Rome. Letters and postcards bearing a special 25 cent stamp, which the public will be able to purchase on 17,18,19 days in the post offices of the city, will take place. excluding those located in the peripheral area “.
It should be added that the flight, which carried correspondence franked with the first postage stamp by air mail in the world, was arranged between the Ministry of War and the one of the Post with the aim of avoiding the navigation of the Tyrrhenian Sea infested by enemy submarines. The news spread at the time, in a particular climate of war censorship, spoke of two quintals of mail transported, as well as two hundred copies of the Turin newspapers. Thanks to the careful studies of Fernando Corsari, it was instead possible to deduce that the courier was only 68 kg from Turin to Rome and 61 kg on the return journey.
And just remembering Fernando, our thoughts went to his wife, then our member, Mrs. Bruna Corsari who in the September issue of AIDA Flash proposed a brief account of the 39th Day of which we report here some excerpts:
“AIDA oversaw the printing of a souvenir postcard, the subject of which symbolically reproduces the flight path. A special postmark dedicated to the “Day” was used for the occasion. The event was accompanied by an exhibition by invitation, set up in a structure next to the Sports Hall, which was attended by about twenty of our members. At 11 am, the usual meeting of AIDA members was held.Our President gave the President of Philatelic Circle of Vasto a painting reproducing the route of the Turin-Rome-Turin flight, as a sign of thanks for his collaboration in the success of the event. A Unique Issue has been published, illustrated with color reproductions, with various interesting articles, including the one of Costantino Gironi, which recalls the flight of 1917, by Carlo Milanesi, the Balloon during the Siege of Paris, by Mario Villa, the first connection between Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5, by Bruna Corsari, the interrupted flights ”.
In conjunction with Vastophil 2007, the European Women’s Basketball Championships were also held in Vasto and an extraordinary dispatch was organized by our Association with a hot-air balloon destined for San Marino and bearing the special cancellations of the locations where the sports competitions were held: Vasto , Chieti, Ortona and Lanciano. Great was the enthusiasm of the public present at the arrival of the hot air balloon in the square in front of the philatelic event, to load the dispatch departing from Vasto and then continue towards San Marino.
