Holidays in Italy

Our first Christmas in Italy was a little tough. No Christmas music on the radio, no fighting traffic at the mall looking for last minute gifts, and not being able to spend time with our family and friends for the holidays was difficult but I think we made the best of it. We had Gingerbread House making contests and Santa was very good to the kids!

While living in Arizona we would usually go to Zoolights at some point during the holiday season or go look at the big neighborhood light displays. Many Italians decorate their homes with Christmas lights but nothing as extravagant as Americans will do. BUT, Italians love to showcase Santa Claus!
You can find a hanging Santa on just about every street you go down.

And while the Christmas lights in the neighborhood left much to be desired, we traveled to Salerno, Italy one night to check out their Christmas Market and light display. It was beautiful! It's set up in an area where there are a lot of little shops so there was the hustle and bustle of shopping going on around us as we walked.

As you can see, it's just a little bit crowded.

The capper to the holidays was New Years and this was a New Years like I have never seen. First  of all, Italians light fireworks and firecrackers NIGHTLY. I still don't know why they do it, but it's become common for us to fall asleep to the sound of "popping" outside our window.  So I knew that an occassion like New Years was sure to be a show of loud sounds and bright lights. The noise actually started early in the day with what sounded like M-80s outside our back door. By 10pm it sounded like bombs were going off around us and at midnight it was WWIII. This was the scene outside my bedroom window.

http://youtu.be/E7wp3Znz_04

Between the fireworks and the gunfire, the show lasted for at least an hour! Italian New Years festivities definitely put Americans' little paper horns and confetti poppers to shame!