Living the Good Life: Merry Quiet Christmas

This was a different Christmas season for us and for most people I imagine.

The Christmas season in Italy starts on December 8, the Immaculata, the day immaculate conception and Mary the mother of Jesus is celebrated. In Rome the Pope, with the help of the firemen, would traditionally decorate the statue of Mary near the Spanish Steps with a wreath of flowers. It had been announced that, in order to prevent crowds, this would not be happening this year. Early in the morning Pope Francis made a surprise visit and followed the tradition of placing the wreath with the traditional mass at Santa Maria Maggiore, also unannounced. I was in the area a couple days later to visit a bookstore and saw the flowers that the Pope and others had left.

We were able to get a tree again this year, thanks to a friend with a car. Ikea sells Christmas trees at a good price, but you have to get there early since they sell out fast. We added to our ornament collection with a few things that will remind us of Rome and our time here. We bought cute cookies at Ikea with the tree. They were cute and smelled good, but absorbed the humidity in the air, softened, and pulled through the strings. Only half survived. The kids were good to leave the cookies on the tree, but if they fell they were fair game.

Hand painted glass globe from the jewelry store down the street.

Cookies and wooden cut outs

TP tube angel for the topper made by Evelyn

Glass motorino

Ceramic decorate in a traditional style

We had hoped to be able to get out of town for a few days while the kids were out of school, but this year the holidays came with strict travel restrictions. We were not allowed to travel outside of our region or even our municipality on some of the days. But we could walk around town and enjoy the lights and decorations. If you are restricted to your city, this is a pretty good one to be stuck in.

In our wandering we found an underground tunnel that takes you from Villa Borghese to a parking garage and on to the Piazza di Spagna metro station. Who knew?

Someone in our neighborhood even added their own decorations to a park near the walls with a couple of yard trees.

We took different family members on Facetime tours of Roman Christmas lights. It was a lot of fun to show them our empty city after dark. It isn't what you usually see. We showed them lights and shop windows and landmarks and monuments that are familiar to us now. It was fun to share it. I hope that we will be able to have visitors sometime soon. All of our visitors for the year were forced to cancel.

One night we went to see the light show at the Capitoline hill. It was called "visions of Christmas" and featured projections of frescos and painting masterpieces depicting events from the birth of Jesus to the visit of the three wise men. With so much cancelled and closed this series of light installations was meant to be a gift to the people of Rome.

It was a beautiful night so we walked through Piazza Venezia past the main city Christmas tree. They call the tree Spelacchio, which means bald, plucked, or skinned. It started a few years ago when the city had a very sad specimen of a tree that died much too quickly. The tree this year looks beautiful, but the name stuck.

From Piazza Venezia we continued up one of the main shopping streets. At this time of year it would normally be packed with people out shopping and enjoying the holidays. Not so this year. It was quiet and eerily empty.

Next up was Piazza Navona and the light show on my favorite fountain. It was a beautiful night with the moon peaking from behind the clouds. The shopping streets were light and bright, but this piazza was dark and hushed.

We ended the night at Piazza di Spagna and ate roasted chestnuts. A couple of high end shopping streets are here. The window displays are festive, but a contrast to the empty piazza.

Christmas Eve we celebrated with cioppino, our Bay area Italian-American tradition. We modify the family recipe a bit based on what we can get and what we like, so mussels and shrimp for My Boy and scallops for John. It's the only time of year I think to buy leeks.

As the kids get older it is harder to know what to get for them. We were able to surprise My Girl with a few favorite American food items. We can get the things we need, but there just isn't a market for nacho cheese taco shells here in Italy. We added to Jack's collection of plaid and wool socks, and sometimes plaid wool socks, but I think we need to get more creative. His closet is filling up.

Since we had a lot of time at home we watched more shows and movies than we usually do. The Mandalorian is a hit and we started a chronological Marvel movie marathon. Disney couldn't have timed their streaming service any better.

We took walks on sunny days to some of our favorite spots, including Caffarella park. It's not everywhere you can just climb up on the ancient ruins. The rain and cold was making it easier to stay at home.

Just before the end of the holiday weeks I got out to see the last of the light displays. This one was at Piazza del Popolo. It was called Custodes: angeli su Roma or Guradians: Angels of Rome. There are so many angels in the artwork and architecture in Rome. They range from creepy baby face to sweet cherub, to beautiful women, to majestic archangel. My favorites are the angels with swords.

Our neighborhood gate even got a bit of special treatment. There wasn't any music or changing pictures, but we did get a couple of ornaments. When I saw it going up I thought it was a light set up for filming a night scene for the latest Mission Impossible movie. They have been filming in town, mostly in Monti. My friend even saw Tom Cruz filming a chase scene near the Colosseum.