(map) 
On December 26, Monterosso Almo presents Il Presepe Vivente, a live nativity scene. The area around the main piazza is strung with lights, ancient stone buildings tumble down the hillside and booths sell delicacies like ravioli, ricotta calda, salsicce on the grill with onions and cannoli of course, as children run playfully around the square.
Excitement builds and all eyes are on Joseph as he enters, leading the donkey with Mary, followed by the Three Kings and a procession of townspeople dressed in period costume, who disappear again down the road below.
This is a ticketed event and when your number is called, you are led down a flight of stairs and straight into the middle ages, people in medieval clothing cooking outdoors, the tiny street transformed. No sign of modern times is evident. Walking along ancient cobblestone streets lit only by candlelight and oil lamps, visitors peek into doorways to watch artisans performing their crafts: lace, rope and pasta makers, ladies baking breads in fanciful shapes, grain sifters, carpenters, blacksmiths, basket weavers, a tavern filled with patrons dancing and much more! At the end, in a cave cut from the rock, is the nativity scene – Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus surrounded by the Wise Men, shepherds and animals as they might have been on the very first Christmas!
– Contributed by Rosemary and Bob Connelly (see bio), artists who fulfilled their dream to “Live Cheap and Make Art” in Italy. Their website www.livecheapmakeart.com showcases their watercolors and photographs.
What a wonderful tradition! I knew nothing about ir. Thank you for sharing.
Happy new year,
Eleonora
How lucky I am to be Italian! My grandparents were born in Guardia Piemontese, Calabria, and I visited the village in September, 2006.
It was a very moving experience. My Aunt Virginia told me that as a child, my Grandma Mary was so beautiful that she was always the “Mary” in the village processions. Thank you for these lovely photos. Wish I was there!
Happy New Year and welcome back! This tradition really adds to the holiday season and the REASON for the season!! I love traditions.
Enjoyed this so much, thank you!
Happy New Year to one and all,
Antoinette
Thank you for sharing this with the rest of the world. My father was from Nicastro, Calabria and always told us stories but to see your pictures made it real. I’m 72 and only wish I could be there to see it first hand..maybe someday..Gracia
I love the watercolors!!
This “manger scene” is very nice. As we lived in Italy, Switzerland, and Germany before returning to the States, we discovered that such live “presepi” (Italian word for Manger Scenes) exist in many towns and villages, not only in Italy. Near our town, in Madisonville Kentucky each year there is a live “Return to Bethlehem” representation. There are no tickets, but the lines are so long that they have to seat everyone in the large auditorium (worship hall) and wait to enter until they call for you by rows. During the wait, that can last a couple of hours, you are treated to music by soloists and bands, singing and playing Christmas carols and music. Once in their gymnasium you are truly back in time in Bethlehem. As you walk around to see the various rough-wood constructions housing all sorts of shops and even eating places, you are apt to witness the beating of a blind man by Roman soldiers, and other realistic (possible) scenes of two thousand years ago, and eventually along comes a real donkey led by a bearded man and carrying a pregnant young maiden. The man is asking everyone if they know of a room somewhere. As you continue through the streets of “Bethlehem,” you finally arrive at the “inn” and there is the Holy Family and the baby. You walk around through the streets on pressed hay. There are real people doing real activities (working with wood, selling, etc.) along the way. Outside there are other animals. Really quite remarkable to see. Very realistic.