Our Christmas and New Year's Eve in Italia

In our recent post (read it here), we related our disastrous visit to the US at the beginning of December. Theft, Covid, and various travel snafus made for a harrowing time.

Nevertheless when we got back home to Italy, we went about our lives - writing, itinerary work, and organizing music engagements.

We also visited several neighboring towns to see what their holiday decorations looked like. Each town does their own big tree in their central piazza, with sometimes elaborate lighting arrangements. Some have one or many “presepe” - manger scenes - of all sizes and styles.

In our own town of Soriano nel Cimino, Christmas market stalls take over the piazza, selling crafts and goodies like mulled wine.

For Christmas Eve, the two of us went to what is now our standard holiday presentation, a little concert at the local old folks home, just up the hill from our house. We played a quick rendition of about a dozen familiar Christmas songs, including the biggest hit of the night, our blues arrangement of “Silent Night”. (Yes, you read that right!)

Afterwards, we came home for our own holiday tradition: Over the course of each year, we write little notes about things going on or just fun or interesting anecdotes, and we fold them up and stuff them in a ceramic pot. Every Christmas Eve, we open a nice bottle of something, light the candles on our (nowadays very tiny) tree, and read through the year’s notes. Our “special dinner” was an assortment of favorites from the US - barbecued ribs, Buffalo wings, shrimp cocktail, and Zen’s famous deviled eggs. Making these very un-Italian dishes here is a fun and delicious challenge!

On the 25th, we were deeply honored to have been invited to join the family of our friend Floriana. Tons of good food - sandwiches, then cannelloni and roasted meats and salads. We love chatting with the folks in this family - they’re largely very patient with our still-primitive Italiano! We also played “tombola”, a traditional game similar to bingo. It was overall a heartwarmingly great time.

For new Year’s Eve, we got a “sky lantern”, a (biodegradable) paper lantern that is traditionally lit and released near midnight, along with a wish for the New Year. We’ll let everyone know how they turned out…

Happy New Year everyone!