The general rule is, the address must contain three to five lines, plus an extra line at the bottom for the country name. Street Address Format Address Line / Element Must All Addresses Include This? 1. Recipient / Addressee YES 2. Additional information about the recipient

(e.g. specific person within an organization) N 3. Additional information about the building or location (which floor, suite/apartment number, etc.; in some unusual cases, district or village) N 4. Street Name + House Number

YES 5. Postal Code (like a U.S. zip code) + Locality (city/town/village) + Province Abbreviation (two letters) YES 6. Country Name YES FOR FOREIGN COUNTRIES (*) (*) With the exception of San Marino and the Vatican City-State



Post Office Box ('CASELLA POSTALE') Address Format Address Line / Element Must All Addresses Include This? 1. Recipient / Addressee YES 2. Additional information about the recipient

(e.g. specific person within a recipient organization) N 3. Specific post office where the box is located

('UFFICIO' + post office name possibly including a number) YES (to avoid processing delays and potential confusion) 4. 'CASELLA POSTALE' (Italian for 'PO BOX') + Box Number YES 5. Postal Code (like a U.S. zip code) + Locality (city/town/village) + Province Abbreviation (two letters) YES 6. Country Name YES FOR FOREIGN COUNTRIES (*) (*) With the exception of San Marino and the Vatican City-State



Rules for best addressing and address format Write rows in the correct order, as given in the table above.

Always write all required rows.

Print (not cursive) and use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.

Usually it's best to avoid punctuation and other special characters.

In some cases slash '/', commas, periods, apostrophes, and accent marks are acceptable.

In some cases slash '/', commas, periods, apostrophes, and accent marks are acceptable. Don't underline!

House/building number comes after the street name, never before.

The postal code ("Codice di Avviamento Postale" = CAP, like a US zip code) must be used on every type of mail.

Use correct & consistent postal code, city, and province abbreviation.

Use your specific address's postal code, not a generic postal code for a large city/area. Otherwise your mail might be delayed.