Most American collectors who wish to venture past the home country predilection for collecting only United States stamps learn about the stamps of the British Commonwealth. Some go to Germany and Area and some few more to France and Colonies. But one of the major collecting areas is the Italian area. Italian philately has it all. Italy confederated in the late Nineteenth Century like Germany and so has numerous State issues such as Tuscany and Roman States that were issued by political entities that were later unified by Garibaldi. Italian philately has the intrinsic interest of Italy proper with thousands of well designed stamps with numerous difficult to find varieties only some of which are listed by the Scott catalog (most of the rest are listed by the specialized Italian catalog-Sassone). The airmails of Italy are very popular as are the postage dues and parcel posts. Italy has WWI and WWII issues including Occupation stamps that are as interesting as Germany's and the Italian Colonies and Offices Abroad contain some of the rarest and most difficult to find stamps in the world. And all of this rarity and collecting interest can be had at a fraction of the cost of what similar varieties would cost in other collecting areas.