This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to Rome
Every year at Christmas my family builds a village. We start with the snowy grounds, then add hilltop houses, Roman ruins and a stable for the holy babe to lay. Added to this is a motley crew of shepherds, cheesemongers, fishermen, gladiators, drunks, monks and a crucial addition — a pizzeria. The economy of ancient Bethlehem was very diverse, according to our Nativity scene.
To British friends who visit our home at Christmas, this fantasy village appears rather mad. But in southern Italy, it’s normal for households and churches to spend days in December crafting these detailed dioramas called presepi, which are more clay-based tapestries of daily life than accurate Nativity scenes. Our next-door neighbours in Naples, where we lived in the early 2000s and witnessed the tradition, cleared a whole room of their house for their presepe, because the architect father had constructed a small Roman amphitheatre above which his clay angels could throng.
Neapolitans take presepi particularly seriously, because their city was, after all, the birthplace of these miniature marvels. A whole district around Via San Gregorio Armeno is devoted to family-run workshops, where figurines, landscapes and even tiny clay cheeses are lovingly sculpted. The craft dwindled in skill and manpower for a time, but it has witnessed a revival as a new generation of Neapolitans takes pride in their quirky heritage, buoyed by the presepe’s popularity in other regions of Italy that once dismissed it as southern folk art.
It’s especially caught on in Rome, where the past five years have seen a vast exhibition of 100 presepi scenes displayed in the Vatican. One even featured a miniature Pope, a Christian conundrum that defies logic. And while Naples, an hour’s fast train ride from Rome, remains the heart of the tradition, Rome has expanded the culture with presepe museums and immersive experiences, bringing it beyond the home and church and into some of Rome’s most iconic historic spots.
The Vatican
Each Christmas, the Vatican receives a special presepe donated from a different region of Italy; towns have been applying for the honour since 2012. One year, an entry from Castelli in Abruzzo that featured some 50 figures — including an astronaut and a warrior that looked like a Star Wars character — won and had traditionalists frothing into their cappuccinos.
This year’s scene in St Peter’s Square comes from the diocese of Rieti, not far from Rome, where St Francis of Assisi is believed to have created the first Nativity scene 800 years ago (see below). The Vatican has announced that, unlike in St Francis’s presepe, the display will feature model rather than real animals.
On top of that, the Vatican hosts the international 100 Presepi exhibition. Scenes range from the traditional to the abstract, and the contemporary presepe often serves as a canvas for political commentary, such as figurines of refugee holy families designed to draw attention to racism against African migrants. After Covid, a crib scene in an ambulance paid homage to emergency workers. Last year, one of the most poignant displays was a holy family set in modern-day Ukraine, among the ruins of a bombed-out village.
Churches
It’s said that when Saint Francis of Assisi made his Nativity scene in 1223, he was inspired by the mosaics depicting the holy birth in the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. He placed a manger and live animals in a cave in Greccio and declared that he wanted the beauty of Christmas to be enjoyed in visual form that would “help people rejoice in the humility of baby Jesus”. However, churches in the centre of Rome have deviated rather wildly from the theme of humility, instead installing presepe scenes of extravagant renderings. Dazzling angels, Roman columns and a rambunctious tavern with ruddy-cheeked locals can often be found in the mises en scène, alongside carts piled with market produce, hawkers selling chestnuts and buxom washerwomen up to their elbows in soap suds.
Santa Maria in Via, Sant’Ignazio di Loyola and San Marcello al Corso churches are all within five minutes’ walking distance of each other. Their dramatically lit presepi are easily spotted just inside the doors, though all have interpreted the scene in distinctive ways. Sant’Ignazio di Loyola opts for a grotto setting for the holy birth, whereas Santa Maria in Via has imagined life in a small medieval Italian town — but one that has just found out tidings of great joy are upon it, and is springing into action.
Shops
If you are tempted to indulge a childlike love for miniatures and take a piece of presepe home, you’ll need to seek out some eccentric little workshops. In Naples, these are easily found in the bustling Via San Gregorio Armeno (also known as “Christmas Alley”), but in Rome presepe shopping involves a small quest to unexplored new districts. La Magia del Presepe, for instance, is a tiny and delightful shop tucked on a residential road in Tor Pignattara, east of the city centre. The shelves and window displays are stuffed with small to medium-size figures, accessories and housing. I recently bought a hay bale, a man roasting chestnuts and some mini carrots for my clay donkey.
Not far away is the Presepe Artistico Pasquali Fiorenza in Furio Camillo, near the Appian Way park. Here you’re likely to find water features and other bits of equipment needed for constructing taverns, amphitheatres and other historically accurate Nativity scenes.
For large, impressive specimens head to Mar Statue Sacre on Borgo Vittorio, near the Vatican. It also sells figures with moving parts, such as shepherds shearing their sheep and fishers fishing, which make satisfying clicking and whirring noises.
Be warned that it’s nearly impossible to find a cute baby Jesus figurine: like Baroque religious paintings, the clay babies all resemble either horrid shrunken men or grotesque creatures.
Experiences
We’ve all seen Nativity scenes enacted by small children running about pretending to be sheep and crying on stage. But the Presepe Vivente takes it to another level, with adult actors doing a stint on the Nativity circuit. On top of the usual birth of Jesus story, where wise men follow stars and angels proclaim tidings of great joy to shepherds, there are also subplots, back stories and romances. The mad Italian presepe with all its saints and sinners is brought to life. This year, the Presepe Vivente di Roma will be at the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore on December 16.
For a calmer experience, the Presepe dei Netturbini museum is a cave of soft lighting and Christmas cosiness. Here you can linger for hours peering inside these Lilliputian topographies of the imagination.
Where have you seen a particularly impressive presepe in Rome? Tell us in the comments below. And follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter
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