An Italian Christmas celebration simply isn’t complete without a trip to Naples for a stroll along San Gregorio Armeno, a narrow street in the very oldest part of the city that’s lined with stores selling nativity figures. From the end of November through Epiphany on January 6th, the street is turned into a one-way pedestrian thoroughfare to accomodate throngs of Italians and tourists searching for the perfect addition to their holiday presepe scene.
Most Neapolitan creche merchants feature a wide array of miniature angles, virgins, shepherds, and wisemen who pay homage to the baby Jesus alongside figurines of butchers, bakers, and pizza makers. But on San Gregorio Armeno, there’s a store or two that extends Christmas invitations to a much broader range of personalities, and so, the eCoolers recently made a pilgrimage to Naples to see who had been deemed deserving of an appearance at the manger this year.
Being somewhat partial to the American President-Elect Barack Obama, we were thrilled to see figurines of him and Michelle, two people that we’d invite to join our Christmas celebrations in a flash (note that Michelle holds a sign with Obama’s name and the Italian symbol for victory). But, we were equally intrigued to see that John McCain was available to follow the star, along with with a variety of soccer stars and race car drivers.
Comedian and political critic Beppe Grillo is an honorary wise man this year, as is Roberto Saviano, the Italian author of Gomorra, a semi-fictional expose of the Neapolitan Camorra (their particular version of the mafia), who’s recently gone into hiding because of threats made on his life.
Photos by the fabulous Susan Sanders. Be sure to check out her 2009 Rome with a View calendars as well as her website.
