No One Here Thinks I'm Funny: Presepio

Literally translated, presepio means crib and refers to the nativity scenes that are everywhere here. We took a couple of afternoon excursions to see some of them, but truthfully we don't have to go far or make specific plans to find them--they're in many of the shop windows in towns. In fact, when ice skating this past weekend, there was this large presepio set up in the entryway to the rink.

Can you see the bagpiper?

We had heard that the presepi in Poffabro were worth checking out. Poffabro is just about half an hour from the base up in the mountain a little bit. We left early afternoon planning to arrive just as riposo was ending but before the sun had completely set. After twisting and turning up narrow roads, we found a place to park our enormous American minivan and walked to the center of the quaint town. As we explored the narrow roads, alleyways and walkways we found all kinds of nativity displays. Let me take you there now.

See the star? I'll talk more about the star later.

Narrow-way--the windows will all have decorations or nativity displays in them. It was so fantastic!

yes, perfume bottles. We saw some figures made from finger nail polish bottles, too. R loved them.

This was one of the larger displays.

Demijohn nativity!!!! LOVED IT! These large glass bottles are what the Italians use to fill and transport wine from the winery to their homes, where they bottle it themselves.

We didn't see a cork presepio, but did see other cork decor

This was another larger display--we do elaborate villages from Hallmark. The Italians do elaborate villages, too.

One of those stars--they're everywhere here. I wanted one, but figured I couldn't use it once I didn't have 220V anymore, so it would be a waste. Maybe we'll make our own!

Again--the star, this time out of metal. It's made an impression on Lucy--she drew a nativity this past week, and she drew a shooting star above the stable.

If that wasn't fantastic enough, we also got word that a couple of the towns on the coast had sand sculpture presepio displays. Sign me up! On New Year's Eve we headed to Jesolo (about an hour's drive away) to check out baby Jesus in sand. It was an impressive, life-sized walk through Bethlehem. We entered to see the angels telling the shepherds of the good news. Then, we made our way through Bethlehem, past markets, Roman soldiers (and somehow a seaside village--must have gotten off the beaten path a bit) until we came to the stable. It was really incredible.