Christmas in Italy

In this episode we talk all about our experiences with the Natale holidays that we've had since moving to Italy six years ago - the food, the people, the celebrations... and did we mention the food? 

We’ll tell you where to see nativity scenes year-round, why a witch on a broom is part of the Christmas holiday, and talk about what Christmas is like for us here in Italy. 

We recorded all new tracks for this episode, too - with two different Christmas tunes. On these arrangements Matt added percussion using his face, and also using a bottle of ibuprofen - very apropos for the season!

Want to know more about us and our travel services? Find us at:

www.LittleRoadsEurope.com

www.facebook.com/LittleRoadsEurope

We craft small-town driving itineraries for travelers to Italy, Ireland and Scotland.

And our "alter-egos" as musicians:

www.OrsiniVirtuosi.it

Transcript

XMAS in Italy podcast notes

Note: This is not a complete transcript, but rather the show notes we write in advance to prepare for the episode. 

INTRO: 

Welcome to Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond

Today we’re talking about our experiences with Christmas-time in Italy - 

Among other things, you’ll hear about…

- What Christmas dinner is like in an Italian home

- what a witch on a broomstick has to do with Xmas

- and: which is a less welcome visitor at the holidays - termites, or mold?

[music up then down to 20%]

This is Matt Walker -         …and I’m Zeneba Bowers - 

We’re recording while sitting on the terrace of our tiny home in Italy - so you’ll get a sense of the sounds of life in our little town. We want this to be more like a casual conversion with us - complete with church bells, cats meowing, motor scooters and whatever else 

- so pour yourself an eggnog and imagine Christmas in Italy - here on Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond.”

[Music up then fade out]

[M] For those of you who don’t know us: We are professional musicians and also travel writers and consultants, living and working here in Italy for the past 6 years. 

If you want to learn more about us and our lives, you can find us on our website LittleRoadsEurope..com, on our socials, and now here on our new podcast. 

[Z] …and that was us playing our own intro music - Matt arranged that one specially for Xmas, and we recorded it here in our house! Since we’re musicians working here in Italy, ecc ecc ecc

So let’s get to talking about Christmas in Italy!

Let’s start with Our first Xmas in Italy - Let’s set the scene:

Pretty stressed and discombobulated, different than what we imagined: Details are in our memoir, but suffice to say that a lot of stuff went wrong

Met local Soriano friend, a soprano w baroque ensemble, we played a Xmas concert (out of town)

This friend invited us to Xmas lunch with her family

Continued our tradition of Christmas Eve notes

Went to Xmas lunch at new friend’s family’s house - Multi generational family lunch w no English

Matt brought guitar but could hardly think of any songs to play. 

Food: Tons of antipasto plates - then: Canneloni, roast pork, chicken; fried lamb, potatoes, roasted veg 

Then: Went to play a concert at the Residenza S Giorgio, walked up from our house carrying everything. Friend’s family came too, lots of other family members of the residents

Xmas trees: Big deal for Zen - had a rubber tree plant one year; another got reclaimed used one from frat house 

Contrast w Xmas in Nashville - bigger house, high ceilings, 9 ft cut tree, decorating took like 4 hours - Frasier fir (?) w strong scent

In Italy, no pine scent, it’s a different tree variety; 

no pine-scented candles (but pine candy, YES)

Holiday candles are pomegranate, berry,salted caramel 

We used to get a live tree w root ball, but only about 4 ft tall, eye-level on a little pedestal

One year we got back from the store (grocery store, tree cost €11) to discover the root ball was infested with termites! 

A year later, we realized having a large ball of wet dirt in our house for a month led to a severe mold problem. 

Now we have a fake tree - takes like 10 minutes to set up and decorate.

— “ADVERTISEMENT” BREAK —

That sound of the pill bottle means that we need to stop for a word from our Holiday sponsor - - - -  just kidding, we don’t have any sponsors - instead, today’s show is brought to you by: 

A Good Idea. And today’s Good Idea is: 

If you have kids visiting for holidays, make sure you have the caps to all your pill bottles secured, and everything put away where your little ones (or big ones) might come across them. 

That’s it!   … So anyway, where were we?

That was a new music clip, too - Matt arranged Jingle Bells for this, and he played the pill bottle too - Jingle Pills

Natale festival schedule: 

30 Nov - Viterbo tradition Fest di Sant Andrea, considered beginning of advent 

6 Dec: Feast of St Nicholas - San Nicolo di Bari, Soriano’s cathedral - gift giving (aka Santa?)

Season generally considered to start 8 Dec: Feast of the Immaculate Conception (don’t bother to do the calendar math on that one)

13 Dec: Santa Lucia

24 Dec: La Vigilia - Feast of 7 fishes

25 Natale

26 S Stefano (St Stephen)

6 Jan – Befana

Holidays in Italy: religious festivals, family and feasting, but not necessarily steeped in the religious aspect 

More for community events, family meals - w foods connected to specific day, feast, saints ecc

Less materialistic & commercialistic, but still indulgent 

Traveling in Italy at Xmas-time - clients sometimes want this - sounds fun but requires extreme planning - fixed Xmas dinners at restaurants

Speaking of eating:

XMAS FOODS:

Cakes: Panettone, panforte (the flat dense one), torrone, pan d’oro, LOTS of biscotti

 Pesce di Sant’Andrea - Xmas chocolate fish - w/charm inside: from 30 Nov thru December

Xmas trees in all the little towns, so we drive around to different ones to walk through, coffee, see decorations 

Yule logs burning in piazza (Pienza),

Our town Soriano: chestnuts, mulled wine, xmas markets - artisans

Nativity scenes - PRESEPE - including life-sized ones and actual live ones “Presepe Vivente”

Vitorchiano Presepe series throughout the town - we talked about on an earlier podcast episode

Gin Pandoro, Aperol Panettone 

Holiday extends through New Year’s Capodanno (also w religious observances) and to: 
6 Jan – Befana - brings presents (corresponding to Epiphany, when the 3 kings arrived with their swag) - kids have to be good all the way through mid-January

OUTRO: 

I think that’s a good place to wrap it up here - we hope you enjoyed joining us for our chat about Christmas in Italy !

Don’t forget about our “Ask us anything” - you can write in and …

We’ll be talking about a wide variety of topics here on this podcast, from travel tips to slice-of-life stories - we’ll be posting a new episode each Tuesday. 

So catch us next time - we’ll see you down the Little Roads… Buone Feste!