Piazza Navona Christmas Market

Now that we're approaching St. Valentine's Day, I want to talk about Christmas and our awesome trip to Krakow, Poland!  (Can I just say how much I love working on Windows! Bad Ubuntu!) I've gotten out of the house and am stationed in Leon's office in the late hours of the evening so that this blog will get off its butt and continue.

So where did we leave off?....

Christmas! This wont be as hard to imagine for those of you who are still in a wintry wonderland. (admittedly I'm still a little bit jealous. But then I go for a walk in the 60 degree weather today and forget about it)

Although there was never any snow here in Rome, Christmas lights helped to make the streets very festive. Restaurants, like Luigi's here, actually still have their garland up today. Although I think they've finally taken down the lights.

One of our main destinations while still in Rome was  Piazza Navona with its crazy Christmas Fair. We were surprised that it was more like a carnival fair then what I would think of as a Christmas Fair, but it was still fun.

Balloons and Crowds at Piazza Navona Christmas Fair

 It was packed with rows upon rows of craft/goods/food stands that looked like box cars with a canopy. You could find beautiful ornaments like these:

Can't imagine the cost of decking out our entire 4 foot tree with these....
but it would be pretty!

 Fantastic wreaths...

People, presents, and Piazza Navona

 And of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without a Merry-Go-Round! Wait, not that's the county fair again..



One of my favorites of course were all the junk food stands. The massive doughnuts the size of your face were very tempting, but I settled eventually on a more reasonably sized frosted chocolate one. (But it wasn't very good. Too dry. Next time, go big or go home!)

Just trying to capture the delightfulness of my children.
Not the doughnuts. I swear.

 Many, many of the stands were of various cresh accessories, figurines, and village and/or cave houses. Apparently I hear that many Italians have several (3 or 4) nativity scenes throughout their houses. But that ain't the American way, so sorry none of you American friends got any of these beauts. If you'd like to enlist in the multiple cresh households, let me know and I'll make a note for next Christmas.

Nativity Scenes

I found this MASSIVE, several-feet-high house at one stand. I'm just guessing, but I don't think that's the "lowly manger" in which Jesus was born. It's still really cool nonetheless. 

Maybe its just a well equipped  cave?

Carnival Games included shooting things, rolling things, and ringing things, like these floating swans. All for the the classic stuffed animals that no Italian apartment has room to house.

Lady in the way!

We definitely got a good mix of Christmasy, carnival, and Halloween sentiments when mulling through the crowd. The latter effect being caused by these traditional Christmas Witches, known as the Bufana. Complete with ugly face, broom stick, plaid garments, and all-around un-Christmasy feel to it....at least by my standards. I really tried to warm up to her, but she seemed to fit in better two months prior.

The Christmas Bufana

It carries some story about the Magi coming to her house looking for directions to the Christ child. But she was too cranky and mean to help them out. Then she repents and goes looking for the child herself, but never finds him. She feels so guilty (good Catholic witch) that she gives out presents and candy to children. On Epiphany? Look it up for more accurate details. Don't let these fantastic story telling skills bewilder you away from the fact that it's actually February and my short term memory ran out a month ago.

 Aaaaaaand.....more stands! This one oddly featured a lot of Simpson memorabilia. Puppets?

Again, more carnival than Christmas, but what the hey!
It's all fun!

Here's a small side note, gently reminding all you Mainers out there that eating outdoors was still possible in the middle of December.

So warm and cozy...hehehe

One of the stands I should have gotten a picture of, but was too busy admiring their goods, was the fountain pen stands. They had ones with dragons going up the stem, flowers, all ending in fantastic colored plumes. I really really wanted to get one for Leon, but it was above our budget for each other. Now, two months later, we got some beginner, flat nibbed fountain pens and Leon is steadily on his way to becoming a master pretty writer. I think I shall give him that as a title. He'll like it. :)

One the way home we saw another example of good old-fashioned Christmasy spirit. An evergreen headress! Decked out with lights, bells, and bows!!

Taking pictures of strangers covertly doesn't always guarantee a smiling face.

Sing it with me! "City Street lights, even head lights..." (get it!) Ok, those are both head and tail lights there. :)

Buon Natale! Auguri!

(Stay tuned for actual Christmas week footage, as we travel to Krakow, Poland in some of the next few blog posts!)