Perugia

The plate shown in this picture comes from Perugia and it has got the origin code PU: this was used only gor six years, from 1927 up to 1933, when it was changed in PG, even if I don't know the reasons. Anyway, due to its short life, it's quite hard to find pictures with plates with PU and so I'm very glad to show it here.
Perugia is not the only province that changed its code: a full list with the pictures that I could find so far, is available on this web site in the page of disappeared provinces.

I want to thank Adolfo Arena very much for this nice picture.

Italian Social Republic

This picture was taken in 1944, during the short life of the Italian Social Republic, and it shows Benito Mussolini greeting people in the streets from a convertible Lancia Astura. The plate of the vehicle is very clear, with the number "2444 AR", but unfortunately it is not known the meaning of the letters AR: possible meanings are "Amministrazione Repubblicana" (Republican Administration), "Autoparco Repubblicano" (Republican Transport fleet) or "Aeronatica Republicana" (Republican Air force, even if in the documents it was usually referred as ANR, Aeronatica Nazionale Republicana).

The picture is taken from the book "Storia fotografica del fascismo", written by De Felice and Goglia, and I downloaded it from the web site Tra guerra e resistenza with the help of Guglielmo Evangelista.

Red Cross in Korea

During the war of Korea in 1950 the Italian Red Cross sent a field hospital: the vehicles used in that occasion were American and had two plates, the American and the CRI. This CRI plate was painted in white directly on the bumper and didn't have the typical red cross that you see on normal CRI plates.

Many thanks to Roberto Pola who sent this picture to me, taken from the book "La logistica dell'Esercito Italiano".

Police of Trieste

This picture shows the police of Trieste aligned in front of the courthouse of the town in the years between 1948 and 1956. At that time the province was under the control of the American and British forces and the police had the plates with the English word "Police". In the picture the plates of the vehicles are not very clear, but it's easy to see that motorcycles had a front plate, even if with only the word "Police" and without numbers. Also the small letters printed on the tanks are very interesting, the letters YB and 2 couples of digits: they are English military plates and the letters YB were used for the remainings of the war.

Another nice picture of a vehicle with the plate of the Police of Trieste is available on this site: click here to see it.

I want to thank Roberto Grando for this interesting picture and Guglielmo Evangelista for his explanation of these plates.

Olympic games of Rome

Some special plates were issued for the vehicles used during the Olympic games of Rome in 1960. They were made of some type of thin cardboard and were mounted with the normal Italian plate. This picture shows a vehicle of the Italian Red Cross with a double plate: even if it's difficult to see, the plate on bottom is the normal plate and the plate on top is the olympic plate.

Many thanks to Roberto Pola who sent me this nice picture.