c/o (Italy)

In Italy, c/o, or in the capital form C/O (or the character U+2105 ℅ CARE OF), is an abbreviation used in postal shipments to indicate a person other than the recipient, but to whom the message is physically addressed. It is synonymous with "at".

The abbreviation originates from the English expression care of (which literally means "in the care of") understood as "domiciled at" and originally had the purpose of allowing the delivery of mail to people staying with others and therefore without their own address or not present at their own address. The relative character is encoded in Unicode as U+2105.

Usage

The symbol is usually placed under the name of the actual recipient of the letter, under or next to the symbol the person or entity residing at the indicated address is indicated instead.

For example, if there is a letter addressed to a person named James Waterman who is staying with Annabella Lettiere, who is the name on the mailbox, the address will be indicated as follows:

James Waterman

c/o Annabella Lettiere

via Regina dei Gigli 98

00137 Roma (RM)

Mrs. Lettiere, when she empties the mailbox, will deliver the letter to Mr. Waterman.

You can write more detailed address such as the below:

James Waterman

via Regina dei Gigli, 98

4° Piano, Scala D, (c/o Annabella Lettiere)

Roma, Roma 00137

Scala means the name of the building in the apartment complex, and piano means the floor (It starts with 0 floor, not the 1st floor.). There is no house number, so you have to write the house owner's name.

See also

• Poste Italiane