Curiosity Corner #23..A little piece of heaven

In 1956, a dozen stamp collectors of Sao Paulo Brazil, met under a big tree
in the downtown Praca da Republica (Republic Square) to exchange stamps.
Jose Leandro de Barros Pimentej, a philatelic journalist who recently
commemorated his 21st anniversary of activity as a
stamp columnist in 1971, was the "father of the idea", following the example
of other open air stamp markets in some other big cities of the world.

http://groups.msn.com/Stamps/shoebox...oto&PhotoID=56

From then on, every sunny Sunday (when the weather is bad the stamp
collectors gather under the square gazebo) the Sao
Paulo philatelists meet around that tree. The group has increased in size
continuously - and now one can find there hundreds of old and young
stamp collectors, together with part-time and full-time dealers, who use
the square benches (or install their own ones) to display their merchandise.

After the stampcollectors, came the coin collectors, and their number is
now in the hundreds level. More recently,painters, poets, engravers, sculptors
and handicrafters --plus a crowd of 4,000 to 5,000 watchers - gather there every
Sunday. It is certainly one of the more intense and crowded
"open philatelic markets" in the whole world. And the city
of Sao Paulo has now a new tourist spot.

...........By Francisco V. Crestana