The Christmas season in Italy is characterized by the Crib, representations of the Nativity scene set up in churches, piazzas and homes. These can be life-size (in public places), or filled with classic miniature representations of the Holy Family, the angels, the shepherds and the Three Wise Men, or else enriched with hundreds of little side players – tradesmen, craftsmen, animals, current personages in the news, like football players or politicians, as in the creative Nativity compositions of the San Gregorio Armeno district in Naples.

Some Nativities draw attention to current circumstances, like the Crib in the main square of the small hill town of Ariccia, some 30 kms from Rome, which focusses on the Covid 19 pandemic. Designed by local artist Lidia Onice and realised by the Amici Per Caso Association, the Presepio di Speranza (Nativity of Hope) pays tribute to medics with the figure of an exhausted doctor crouching beside the Holy Family. Italy's voluntary services are also represented by a row of workwear overalls hanging from pegs.

In the opposite corner stands an empty wheelchair in memory of all the elderly victims of the virus, alongside a world globe symbolizing the fact that the entire world is united in this period of suffering.

Info: www.ilcaffe.tv