Artist

RACCOMANDATA CON RICEVUTA DI RITORNO
(RACCOMANDATA RICEVUTA RITORNO)

Luciano Regoli (vocals, acoustic guitar)
Nanni Civitenga (guitar)
Stefano Piermarioli (keyboards)
Damaso Grassi (flute, sax)
Manlio Zacchia (bass)
Francesco Froggio Francica (drums, percussion)

RRR (as they were often referred to at the time, due to their long complex name) were formed in Rome in March 1972 by musicians coming from other groups: Regoli was from Il Ritratto di Dorian Gray, Civitenga had played with Quelle Strane Cose Che, Grassi and Froggio Francica were with Panna Fredda in their latest phase. The bassist was Paolo Bencivenga, who played with them at the Villa Pamphili festival in Rome in May 1972 but was replaced by Manlio Zacchia for the LP recording in Autumn.
The only album by the original line-up, Per... un mondo di cristallo,was housed in a distinctive gatefold cover containing a nice drawing from the Up&Down Studio (as in Procession's Fiaba), and mixed a typical Italian prog sound with acoustic guitar, flute and keyboards in evidence, with jazz influences, and the result is very good, with great tracks such as Un palco di marionette but even some less convincing moments.

The band had an intense live activity up to the early months of 1973 before splitting due to the pressure from their record company that wanted them to participate in the Sanremo Festival. Roberto Gardin (also from Il Ritratto di Dorian Gray) had replaced Manlio Zacchia on bass for the live concerts.
Singer Regoli and guitarist Civitenga formed Samadhi, while drummer Froggio Francica played with Procession on their 1974 second album Fiaba, and for a short time with Kaleidon.
Luciano Regoli pursued his interest in art, becoming a popular painter and leaving music for many years until his collaboration with progressive metal group DGM on three of their albums at the end of the 90's.

In 2010 Regoli formed La Nuova Raccomandata con Ricevuta di Ritorno, with Nanni Civitenga, Roberto Gardin and Walter Martino, releasing Il pittore volante with guest appearances by some big names of the Italian prog such as Claudio Simonetti (Goblin), Lino Vairetti (Osanna), Nicola Di Staso (Libra).
The reborn group also released the Live in Elba album, recorded in 2013, and a new studio mini-LP in 2019, In rock, closer to the 70's hard rock.
In 2025 another nice release between progressive and classic rock with In fuga, where Regoli, Civitenga and Martino were assisted once again by many guest musicians.

Not particularly difficult to find, Per... un mondo di cristallo was originally released with a gatefold laminated cover as most of Fonit Cetra current releases (this particular one had the Cetra logo on label). Two variants of the cover exist, one with the "per..." writing on front cover in black type, the other having it in blue. No counterfeits exist.
The Fonit/Vinyl Magic reissue has a standard gatefold cover reproducing the original but with different number and blue label.

The only foreign issue reported on vinyl comes from Japan, on Nexus (K25P-426), dated 1984. Japanese CD issues came out on Crime in 1991 (KICP 2156), on Strange Days in 2004 (WAS-1004) and again in 2009 (SNS-5009) and on Warner in 2016 (WPCR-17342).

The rare single L'ombra was probably only issued as a promo with blank cover, and it contains an odd B-side, entitled Immagini, sogno e realtà. This is in fact an excerpt from the long Sogni di cristallo, taken from the LP.

The LP version of the 2010 album Il pittore volante was issued in 300 copies on black vinyl and a a limited pressing of 33 copies on multicolour vinyl, signed by Luciano Regoli.
Both this and the following album In fuga were also issued as a box set in 66 numbered copies, containing the CD and LP versions, a book, a painting by Luciano Regoli and other inserts. These rare and expensive issues were sold through the BTF website.

Their exhibition at Prog Exhibition 2010 in Rome, included in the 2011 box set, was also issued as a separate CD, Prog Exhibition 2010 Live in Rome, in Japan on Vivid Sound/Immaginifica (VSCD 4260) in 2014.

The 2019 album, In rock, a 28-minute mini-LP, came out in limited pressing for the Record Store Day; it is on orange vinyl and has a gatefold cover and a poster.

Per un mondo di cristallo - LP

Per un mondo di cristallo - LP cover detail with black (left) and turquoise (right) text variations

Per un mondo di cristallo - inner gatefold

Il pittore volante - box set

Il pittore volante - standard LP

Live in Elba- LP

In rock- LP

In fuga - LP

Immagini, sogno e realtà - promo 7" single

Click on pictures to enlarge

Luciano Regoli	Nanni Civitenga
Walter Martino	Claudio Simonetti
Thijs van Leer	Raccomandata with Thijs van Leer
Raccomandata con Ricevuta di Ritorno at ProgExhibition 2010 Teatro Tendastrisce, Roma, 6-Nov-2010
Le Radici del Rock - Viterbo 21-Jul-2012

Thanks to Francesco Ricci for information and pictures