Trip to Napoli (Naples)

Originally written on January 30, 2008

On 27 December Francie & I decided to make a day trip to Napoli (Naples) since we heard that it is known as a place to buy handmade nativity sets during Christmas. It is only about a 2 hour train ride South from Rome, so we figured it would be interesting since neither of us had been to Napoli.
So when we arrived we went straight to the street with the nativities, which was packed with people and indeed there were nativities and things for nativities in all the shops and we even saw some people making some. As I mentioned, in Italy they sell the pieces to that nativities separately so there were all kinds of different things you could buy for the nativity. And the managers and scenes ranged from small ones to ones so big at least 2 people would have to carry them. Some shops also had statues of famous people they put in the nativities etc. It was very interesting, but in the end I only bought this inexpensive one that was one piece that later I accidentally left at the restaurant we went to for lunch. That was okay, because after I bought it realized it wasn’t handmade and it didn’t cost me all that much (although I did go back to the restaurant to try to find it, but it was no longer there).
Other than looking at nativities, Francie & I just looked around the town. Naples is known for it’s pizza as well (they make theirs different vs. Rome – Neapolitan pizza has thicker crust), so of course we had to go to a pizzeria and have some pizza. It was VERY good! Mmmm!

Observations about Napoli
I thought Roman traffic was crazy until I went to Napoli! After that Roman traffic seems calm and orderly! I’ve never been so scared that I would get hit walking as I was there. And scooters just go on the sidewalk without any notice and you have to watch out! Yes the drivers there are just insane!

And there are WAY more street vendors in Napoli compared to any where else I’ve been. Rome as quite a few, but in Napoli you couldn’t go down any street without finding someone trying to sell fake purses, some little toys you have no idea what they are, DVDs, etc.

We didn’t stray too far off the main streets because we read that some areas of town could be scary, so we just stuck to the main streets and went to some of the shops there. At first I got excited because the prices seemed so much cheaper compared to Rome, but after I started looking I realize most of them were cheap because they weren’t as good of quality. So all we ended up buying were tights (and the nativity set I lost!).

I did get to see the sea from there – even though it took me a bit to find a place where I could see it! They have a port, but when I tried to go close to the water I got stopped because they said it was a customs area. So I made Francie go all around just so I could take a picture by the sea! He! He!

One of my favorite memories from Napoli that I will always laugh about (and my sister will probably always get made at me for bringing up) is the ‘friend’ my sister found in Napoli. When we were shopping this golden lab came by my sister, started licking her hand, and then started following her. My sister doesn’t really like dogs that much, so she kept telling it ‘Go away! Get away from me!’ and instead of going away it just followed her more and then she would get more aggravated at it. Then we would go into a store and she would say ‘Good it’s finally gone!’ and as soon as we went back out there was the dog waiting for her and would follow her to the next store. This went on for about 10 minutes at least. I made her take a picture with it and then after that it went away.

So that was our quick trip to Napoli!

Here’s a link to some pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87395&l=fd6cb&id=800405227

Christmas in Rome 2007

Christmas in Rome
Originally written 30 January 2008
I’m writing this blog as I am in flight to New York, where I will work for a couple days for a client of mine (yes it’s a bit odd that I move to Rome and then have work in NY, but that’s what happened!). Since I have several more hours left in my fight I figured it is the perfect opportunity to catch up on writing some blogs that I’ve been wanting to write for a long time, but haven’t had time to sit and write them. So here is the first of a couple…since some time has passed, hopefully I can remember everything! (For those of you who don’t like reading long blogs, you’re probably happy if I DON’T remember everything! ).

This year was the first year that I have spent Christmas and New Year’s away from home! I had decided before even moving that I would not go home for Christmas this year because 1) I knew I would need to go home around the end of March for a family event and it’s too expensive to keep flying back and forth & 2) Since I’m in Italy I want to be able to experience Italy and Europe including the holidays. The good part about it was that my sister wanted to come join me, so at least that way I was with SOME family….which was nice.

My sister arrived on 21 December and we stayed in Rome until 30 December and then flew to Paris (only a 2 or so hour flight) to spend New Year’s there. On 3 January my sister flew from Paris to Houston and I flew back to Rome. This blog is about our Christmas in Rome. I will also write in other blogs about our trip to Napoli and spending New Year's in Paris.

Christmas time in Rome
One thing I absolutely love about Christmas time in Italy is that it is more aligned with the Christmas calendar in the Catholic Church rather than being so commercial! The decorations typically aren’t put up until 8 December (feast of the Immaculate Conception) and stay up until 6 January (Epiphany). In fact, when I went to St. Peter’s this past week the Nativity was still up in the Square (it wasn’t revealed until Christmas Eve).
Another thing is that you definitely see more nativity sets compared to any other decorations. There were several large Nativity sets throughout Rome (in Piazza Navona, Spanish Steps, and of course St. Peter’s) and they even had an exhibit that Francie & I went to that had 100 Nativities (100 presepe) made from different materials and from around the world. We both really liked that exhibit because it was interesting on how the nativities were so different. Typically when I have seen nativities it is just focused on the manager and that’s it, but most of these (including the ones around the city) included more and showed life that was going on around the manager. Also at this exhibit they had nativities made from everything from wood and ceramic (with moving parts) to soap, pasta, crayons, CDs, etc. I also noticed when I went to the stores that in the Christmas section there were more nativities and nativity parts compared to the other decorations. And when you buy nativities here you buy them in parts and then build on them – so you buy a manager or whatever scenery you want, then you buy each piece separate. So I guess it’s like a family tradition to buy pieces to the nativity every year to add to your nativity at home. It was all a very nice change from the VERY commercialized Christmas in the United States.
I must speak some on the Nativity in St. Peter’s – although my description and/or picture still won’t do it justice! I noticed at the beginning of December that they had started to put up scaffolding around the obelisk in center of the piazza and were doing work on it and then added some cloth hanging in front of it so you couldn’t see what they were doing. I thought they were going to have it uncovered before Christmas since they started so early, but after I saw the finished result I understood why it took so long! This by far is the largest nativity I have ever seen and probably would fill at least half of my apartment! The scene for the nativity this year was focused on Joseph’s hometown on Nazareth. The were three sections to the nativity – the center was the manager scene, the right side was a carpentry shop, and the left side was a kitchen set-up with the woman cooking and people eating. All the statues in the nativity are life size, so you can just imagine how big it all was! On Christmas Eve when Francie and I went to go see it for the first time we were walking down the street and we could see that it was uncovered, but I though they were still working on it because I thought there were people moving around in it. When we got closer I realized that what I saw were the statues and since they are dressed in real clothes (made of cloth) it was moving in the wind. I took many pictures and some video that I will post that will give you an idea, but it is still something even more amazing in real life! Also after the Epiphany I went back to see the nativity and they actually changed set-up a bit. They moved the 3 wise men to center in the manager and instead of the baby Jesus being in the crib he is sitting on Mary’s lap. I have pictures of that as well.
Some other things that went on during Christmas time in Rome were some markets – the biggest and probably most well known is the one in Piazza Navona. From 8 December to 6 January the piazza changes from being filled with artists and musicians to being filled with booths of candy, toys, jewelry, some handcrafts including nativities, and carnival type games. They also have stands were you can buy little Befane, which look like a witch. I was very confused when I first saw this, so I had to look it up! The day of the Befana is celebrated in Italy on 6 January and that is actually when traditionally the kids would get their stockings and if they were good they get a stocking of candy and if not they get a stocking filled with this black candy that looks like coal and they even have sticks you can buy to put in there too. Here is a link where you can find out more about la Befana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Befana. So to me, this Christmas market looked more like a combination of a Christmas market and Halloween carnival!
One thing I was really surprised about was how many tourists there are in Rome during Christmas! I guess since in my family we always spent the holidays at home and that’s what I associate with Christmas vs. going on a vacation for Christmas. So I just didn’t think there would be as many people…but there were tourists EVERYWHERE!
Also the official holidays during the Christmas time are 8 December (feast of the Immaculate Conception), 25 December (Christmas Day), 26 December (St. Stephen’s Day), & 6 January (Epiphany & celebration of Befana).

Midnight Mass at St. Peter’s
One of the highlights of our Christmas was attending midnight mass at St. Peter’s with Pope Benedict XVI celebrating. My sister and I use to watch it on TV back home, but never did I think I would actually be there in person! I had reserved tickets was back in August or even before to make sure we would be able to attend. The mass of course begins at midnight on Christmas Eve (or I guess it’s Christmas day at that point!), so they started letting people in at 10 I think it was. When I picked up the tickets, they told me that it probably would be a good idea to get there around 7pm to get in line if we wanted to make sure we got in. It was a long time to wait, but we figured this is one of those once in a lifetime things that is worth it.
As a side note I find it a bit funny how at masses with the Pope it’s the only time that people WANT to really sit in the front row and will come hours & hours ahead vs. normal Sunday services were most people are late and prefer the back seats!
So my sister and I get ready and head to St. Peter’s around 7pm, thinking we would be near the front of the line. MAN were we wrong!! When we got to the piazza, the line was already half way into the piazza and was already wrapping like a snake to that point– and let me tell you the piazza is big, so that’s a lot of people! By the time the doors opened, the line went all the way along the outside of the piazza and then wrapped around that whole length in the middle of the piazza. It was incredible! Once we saw were we were in line, we were just hoping to get inside and get seats! Of course we were doing okay BUT when we got to the security lines of course something was wrong with the one we were in line for and by the time we realized the line wasn’t going to move soon and got in another line probably another 50-75 people or more had gone through. We did get a seat towards the back, but mostly because we decided we wanted to get as close to the aisle as possible so we could see everybody coming in & out. The mass was amazing (even though I didn’t understand most of it since it was in Latin & some Italian). I still can’t believe that I actually attended Midnight mass in St. Peter’s – that’s something I won’t forget. And I was so happy I could experience that with my sister because it was very special to her too!
(Here is a link to the Pope’s homily in English if you are interested: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20071224_christmas_en.html)

Christmas Day
The next day before noon we went to St. Peter’s again for a special greeting and blessing the Pope does on Christmas day called URBI ET ORBI. I thought it was going to be more like what he does every Sunday where you can show up about 15 minutes before and the crowd isn’t all that bad until right before he comes out. I was SO wrong! When we got there the piazza was SO full! But I’ve increased my skills of making my way through crowds since I’ve been here and was able to get us close to the front. One of the most impressive things to me was when the Pope went through and did a Christmas greeting in various languages. Now typically on Sundays he does a greeting in about 4 or 5 languages which is impressive enough to me, but for this he did greetings for about 10 minutes straight in languages I didn’t even know existed! I have a link to video of this below just for you to get an idea. It was unbelievable!
(Here is a link to the Pope’s message if you are interested: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/urbi/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20071225_urbi_en.html )

Francie and I decided that for Christmas we were going to try to make our version of an Italian meal…and I think we did a pretty good job! Not that I have experience a traditional Italian Christmas meal to compare it to! The weekend before we went to the Campo del Fiori open market to buy fresh vegetables and herbs, the meat market (my first time there actually!), and the grocery store. We also stopped by a bookstore and bought a Roman cookbook…in English of course. So our meal consisted of white wine, ravioli, lemon veal, potatoes, eggplant, and we topped it off with the traditional Christmas cake (bought, not homemade) called panatone. It all turned out really well and was different from our Christmas meals back home. It also took us from around 2pm until 4pm to cook and eat it all (we would make one course and eat it while the next was cooking). Overall we were happy with our Christmas meal and had an enjoyable Christmas! J

Here are some links to related pictures and video:
Christmas in Rome 2007 pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87387&l=7b9ac&id=800405227

Nativity sets in Rome pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87390&l=6db92&id=800405227

Nativity sets in Rome video: http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=30044047

Midnight Mass video: http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=30046702

Urbi et orbi video of Pope Benedict: http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=28040433

So it's been FOREVER since I've written a blog!

As a sign that things have been a bit busy for me, it's been a VERY long time since I've written a blog. In fact I couldn't even remember the last time I blogged and had to look and couldn't believe it has been so long! What is even worse is that over a month ago on a flight to New York for work I wrote several blogs and only needed to proof them and and some link and never got around to doing that!

So hopefully I can get up to speed shortly...or at least I hope! I will post them as a series of blogs and hope to get at least some posted this week.

Love to you all!

Lynette