AND Christmas time, laid tables, gifts under the tree, afternoons of card games and long family reunions. Or it is a good opportunity to double lock the door of the house, say goodbye to relatives and friends and leave for a trip through the Italian regions. Often though Christmas is also the right opportunity to start a new book. And then, letting yourself be inspired by a good read, you can entertain the idea of a trip following literary itineraries.
In December, for example, many return to their hometown. As happens in the hilarious and moving pages of Appricchio (Fazi editore), novel by Fabienne Agliardi, which tells of the Bresciani family intent on reconquering at every good opportunity, be it summer or Christmas (or Annatale as the locals say), the country of origin of their mother Rosa: «Petricchio It’s the country I love. Here I have my roots, my hopes and my horizons.” However, it is difficult to find Petricchio on the map, because it is a place of invention – which draws inspiration from the villages of Basilicata– where the author accompanies the reader to discover surprising characters, outlining an extraordinary human fresco and the portrait of a village steeped in life lived despite almost no one knowing how to get there.
In Matera for the living nativity scene in the Sassi
As you continue reading, you will be inspired to travel to Basilicata and perhaps stopping in Potenza where, until January 8, travelers will find artisanal nativity scenes, church concerts, exhibitions, theatrical performances, markets and artistic illuminations, and then in Matera which until January 7 hosts the Christmas Village with dancing fountains, bagpipes, street artists and tastings of traditional recipes, in addition to the beautiful live nativity scene that can be visited in the Sassi; without forgetting the stop in Venosa, among the most beautiful villages in Italy, where the wait for Christmas translates into U’ Natâlê Venusëine… What a marvel!a program of events among the ancient alleysi, with music, fragrant cinnamon pancakes, a living nativity scene and a bustling market.
Video projection of Giotto’s fresco on the facade of the Upper Basilica of San Francesco, in Assisi.
The Pope’s one hundred nativity scenes
The intriguing pen of the journalist Fabrizio Roncone, author of The power to kill (Marsilio), instead accompanies the reader to Rome, on Christmas Eve, where the reporter-winner Marco Paraldi moves between cynical fixers and romantic homeless people in a story in which good and evil are intertwined, taking the reader for a walk around the city between the Mezzolitro winery via dei Banchi Vecchi (but which could be inspired by the historic Il Goccetto, among the oldest in the city) and the market Campo de’ Fiori where Paraldi does his shopping and still savors pandoros, panettone and croissants from the Roscioli oven in via dei Chiavari. Once in Rome you can take the opportunity to visit, in St. Peter’s Square until January 7, the 100 Nativity Scenes International Exhibition in the Vatican, with nativity scenes made of paper, fabric, cork, wood and many other materials, coming from all over the world. A visit to the restaurant is recommended National Galleryuntil February 11, to enjoy the exhibition Tolkien, Man, Professor, Author which celebrates the British writer, also author of a very tasty volume, not known to everyone but suitable for the period: Letters from Santa Claus (Bompiani), collection of letters and drawings written for his children.
Campo dè Fiori, in Rom © Andrea Sabbadini.
In front of the ice Nativity
Among the latest releases in the bookstore there is also Merry Christmas Perfidia (Exorma), comic, hilarious and surreal stories; as Gold, frankincense and myrrh by Luigi Malerba in which a group of Italian Three Kings look for a little girl born in Umbria, and the story branches out between motorway toll booths, villages and cities, like a small novel on the road, directed by the group in Massa Martana, in the province of Perugia. The event will be held here until January 7th National exhibition of artistic nativity scenes, Presepi d’Italianow in its 20th edition and considered among the most important nativity scene exhibitions in Italy. It also includes a work of ice, measuring thirteen square metres, inspired this year by the fresco that Giotto painted in Assisi, to commemorate the nativity scene designed by Saint Francis 800 years ago in Greccio, where the nativity scene was born.
In the footsteps of Saint Francis
About the saint of Assisi, thematic reading is the The nativity scene of San Francesco. Greccio’s Christmas story by Chiara Frugoni (Il Mulino), through which you are catapulted into Umbria. In the pictorial cycle the Stories of Saint Francis of the Upper Basilica of Assisi, there is Giotto’s fresco, the thirteenth scene out of twenty-eight, which narrates the creation of the first living nativity scene in history, set up by San Francesco in Greccioin the province of Rieti, benefiting from the help of the town’s castellan. Thanks to this literary axis Assisi-Greccio, two cities just over an hour’s drive away, it is possible to learn more about the figure of Saint Francis and the work of Giotto as well as visiting two places waiting to be discovered: in Assisi the 800th anniversary of the Franciscan nativity scene from 1223 is celebrated and the city can be visited with the Christmas Train and an audio guide that tells all its secrets.
Travelers will be surprised by the sand nativity scene, the beautiful Christmas tree in the Lower Square and the video mapping created on the facade of the Upper Basilica, in addition to the structural lighting on many other buildings in Assisi inspired by the texts of Saint Francis, the works of Giotto and created with low energy impact lights. Magic envelops the Umbrian town. Even in the splendid medieval setting of Greccio, a fortified castrum twinned with Bethlehem, you are immersed in a warm and welcoming Christmas atmosphere.
Those ritual Christmas Eve fires
Not just new releases. Fishing through the books published a few years ago, how The two who saved Christmas by Marco Fabbrini (Graphe), the story of two children who save the Christmas tradition of lighting the torches in village of Abbadia San Salvatore, on Mount Amiata in the province of Sienayou want to visit this small Tuscan village. The tradition told about in the book is true, it is a thousand-year-old custom, one of the most famous fire festivals in Italy which involves lighting 50 pyramid-shaped piles of wood, namely torches, on Christmas Eve. which illuminate and heat the streets of the town, with all the inhabitants to assist you, the background of the choirs and the desire to be together to share a moment of beauty halfway between sacred and profane. The torch workers begin searching for wood at the end of summer, work it, create the enormous stacks and prepare for Christmas Eve.
A torch on Christmas Eve in Abbadia San Salvatore (Siena).
In Naples, the capital of the nativity scene
Among the writers most read by crime lovers there is certainly Maurizio De Giovanni, author among many of a novel published years ago, By my hand (Einaudi), set in Naples during the holidays. An investigation that involves Commissioner Ricciardi in a cold and poor Naples, which is thinking about making a nativity scene and awaits the premiere of Christmas at the Cupiello house, while he is dealing with a double murder in an apartment in Mergellina. A reading that pushes you to leave for the Neapolitan city, even more splendid at Christmas, and perhaps go to visit Il Fabulous nativity scenewhich is located in a large shrine in the sacristy of the Basilica of Santa Maria della Sanità, work created by the Scuotto brothers and the set designer Biagio Roscino, full of symbols, myths and fairy tales, with more than one hundred shepherds, each with their own story to tell and their own tradition to carry on. © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Nativity of the “Fabulous Nativity Scene”, in the Basilica of Santa Maria della Sanità, in Naples.
Where to sleep
Borgo Antichi Orti Via Pallareto, 1, Assisi (Perugia). Village with twelve widespread residences, with attention to detail, with king size beds, wooden parquet, stone walls and views of vegetable gardens and gardens. The inn offers cuisine that respects peasant and monastic traditions. Double room from 160 euros. borgoantichiortiassisi.it
Where to eat
Delicate restaurant Via Umberto I, Contigliano (Rieti). Just 13 minutes by car from Greccio, a place with a muffled and romantic atmosphere. Chef Carlotta Delicato believes in a cuisine of proximity and gastronomic memory, without special effects, which she includes in menu dishes such as rabbit button, mascarpone and lime, cod with lentils and chard, partridge, potatoes and figs. restauradelicato.com
What to buy
The Scarabattola Via dei Tribunali 50, Naples. To take home a beautiful artefact of Neapolitan art, go to Scarabattola, a nativity scene art shop, where you can purchase small contemporary sculptures that reinterpret the traditional symbols par excellence such as Pulcinella, Totò and San Gennaro. lascarabattola.it
What to do
TO Greccio (Rieti) is worth visiting Franciscan Sanctuary of the Nativity Scene with the Small Chapel of the Nativity Scene, built in 1228, created in the cave in which, at Christmas five years earlier, the saint represented the first Nativity in history. TO Naplesa stop in front of the restaurant is a must Historic nativity scene of the Monastery of Santa Chiara.
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