I’m back from my Mission Trip in Italy and had an amazing week discovering Southern and Central Italy.
Naples-a small city of about 4 million! is not really as I had expected. It has always been explained to me as dirty, rough, crime filled, …like NYC…but like New York it also has it’s beautiful areas, amazing historical points, great food and beautiful people!
One area I enjoyed and was actually amazed at the talent was “Christmas Alley”. A road in the historic city center that has nothing but Nativities…or items for your Nativity. We have several Nativities that come out during the Christmas season and one small one that is out all year. In Tennessee I say the majority of us have the following characters…Mary, baby Jesus, Joseph, an angel, some wise men and maybe a few animals. Some may go crazy and place some straw in the barn or manger, add a shining star above the stable…but that’s about it.
In Naples the tradition is to have something old (pull out Mary, Jesus, Joseph) and add something new each year. To do that you have to go shopping! No worries, you can find anything you want for your Nativity, (which is actually an entire village) on Christmas Alley! There is food, pizza, a pizza maker, washing women, butcher, bread maker, flower carts, etc. You can add flying fairies, angels, strings of lights, buildings, churches, shops. You can have all sizes too. You can get handmade items, and even watch local craftsmen hard at work. Most of the pieces are clay and painted, some ceramics and fired. All were different and unique.
Some were covered with a lovely protective glass dome with a pricetag NOT so lovely.
If I had somewhere to put a huge village I could have gone crazy shopping for the little trinkets-it was like a dollhouse for adults…anyway…here is what we saw.
This scene went around the entire store. Characters were very detailed and look at the expressions.
Need a women at the well scene? These have real water!
The people of the village.
This one came with a nice building.
Carving large animals from clay…Gieseppee let me help.
These were huge displays…
Choose your village, then add the people.
Don’t forget the food.
You can add a fairy or one of these billion other tiny objects on the shelves.
The street goes on forever…
and ever….
My disappointment was this…it became like a “where’s waldo?” game trying to find Mary, Joseph and Jesus…who should be the central focal point for a Nativity don’t you think?
