It’s the Jesus Season, but the photograph provided to us today by Susan Sanders shows us a part of Rome’s usual cityscape, rather than something unique to the holidays. Because it’s the center of the Catholic faith, Rome’s streets are flanked by storefronts that sell religious equipment of every kind. Though one street in particular specializes in products of a religious nature (Via dei Cestari, near the Pantheon), it’s not unusual to find stores like the one shown above nestled up next to stores filled with cheese, bread, automotive parts, and underwear.
Here, a sculpture of Jesus is surrounded by Virgin Mary, impassioned saints, baptismal fonts, chalices, candlesticks, and icons.
For more photos by Susan, visit her Rome With A View photo blog.
In celebration of the holidays, La Gazzetta dello Sport has released some fabulous ads that play on Italy’s tradition of creating elaborate presepe or nativity scenes.
Tradition meets the cutting edge of sport in each of these ads for they depict carefully crafted wisemen and shepherds who celebrate the birth of Jesus in the most sporting manners.
Above, the three wisemen pedal furiously towards Bethlehem, holding their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh in their hands as they go. But, these aren’t just generic wisemen figures! The Gazzetta dello Sport website gives the figures fictional identities, calling them Danil di Gaspare, Andy Melchiorre, and Eddy Baldassare (plays on the supposed names of the three kings - Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar) and claims they’re competing in the biking world’s most important event, the Giro di Palestine.
Below, the soccer-playing shepherd known as Rove Sciath is shown in the historic match between Real Bethlehem and Atletico Nazareth, as he scores the winning goal for Atletico Nazareth. His formative years as a young soccer player were spent in Jordan and at 15 years of age he was acquired by Atletico Nazareth for the price of an ox and an ass and by 18 was competing in the big leagues. Now, to celebrate his big victory, he’ll be performing a multiplication of loaves and fishes.
In March 12, 1977, in the town of Gioiosa Jonica in the southern Italian region of Reggio Calabria, a Communist mill owner named Rocco Gatto was murdered in an old-style mafia hit. Born in 1926 as the oldest of 15 children, Gatto was killed for refusing to pay fees extorted by the ‘ndrangheta or local Calabrian mafia.
In 1978, Gatto’s death was memorialized by a group of local artists in Gioiosa Jonica when they painted murals on the facade of a theater in Piazza Vittorio Veneto. Now, some 30 years later, those murals have faded and fallen into disrepair and are in desperate need of restoration. The photos above show the state of degradation: the photo on the left shows the murals in 1977 and the photo on the right depicts their current state.
In the interest of preserving the memory of Rocco Gatto and the fight against the mafia, an organization called da Sud is raising funds to restore the murals. You can sign a petition by visiting the da Sud website or you can contribute funds (in Italy) by sending a donation through the Italian post office (C/C Postale n. 73340903 intestato a “Comitato pro murales teatro Gioiosa”. Causale “Campagna restauro Murales) or making a wire transfer to the following account: Abi 7601 Cab 16300.
