Italian postal service Poste Italiane announced the end of the generic postcode for Rome and 27 other cities on 20 September. Until now people posting to a Rome address for which they did not know the postcode could use the generic 00100 code, but it will now be necessary to use the specific postcode of the zone in which an address is located. The rule has also come into force in Ancona, Bari, Bergamo, Bologna, Brescia, Cagliari, Catania, Florence, Genoa, La Spezia, Livorno, Messina, Milan, Naples, Padua, Palermo, Perugia, Pescara, Pisa, Reggio Calabria, Salerno, Turin, Trieste, Venice, Verbania and Verona. Around 10 per cent of streets in the 27 cities will now have a different postcode. As always, letters sent without postcodes are likely to take longer to deliver. For further information on the new postcodes, including a zone finder to help you locate the correct code, see www.poste.it or tel. 803160.