Joe and Pat Gartman share the festive photos they took when they spent Christmas in the south of Italy…
After a stay in Rome, we headed south by train in the middle of November 2022 – our first trip back to Italy since the pandemic. Somehow, despite all our wanderings, we’d never been to Puglia, the region that occupies the heel of Italy’s boot.
So we began with Lecce, because we’d heard of its extravagant baroque architecture and the celebrated local stone that made it possible.
But we were also hoping to experience the city’s Christmas celebrations, and though we saw workmen busily erecting lighting displays, we were impatient for the lights to be switched on.
On our way to visit the Duomo, we came upon an accordion player, just before dusk. It was that golden hour when Lecce’s buildings, made from the magical pietra leccese limestone, begin to glow.
As he played, the accordionist steadied himself against a pillar of Piazza Duomo’s entrance gate, his collection plate at his feet.
I suddenly realized the Christmas decorations above the street were shining at last! I don’t remember the music; only the light from the setting sun and the luminous ornaments, and the golden walls they lit. We gave the musician two euros; I hope he collected more.
Illuminations in Italy
Overnight, we found the city had come alight. In historic Piazza Sant’Oronzo, the great square between the centro storico and the new part of town, nightly crowds celebrated late into the night, silhouetted against the brightly lit base of the great municipal tree.
Above, an electric milky way of lights eerily lit the piazza and its surrounding buildings, including a 16th-century tower, the Palazzo del Seggio, and the shadowy pit of the ancient Roman amphitheatre.
Our further travels, as we zig-zagged our way back to Rome, took us to an illuminating (and illuminated!) variety of towns and cities, in Puglia and then in Campania: Taranto, Locorotondo and Alberobello in Puglia; then Amalfi, Caserta, and Salerno in Campania.
We spent December in two cities whose public celebrations of Christmas made words seem inadequate: Alberobello, in Puglia, famous for its conical stone-roofed trulli houses, and Salerno, an important port and tourist mecca at the east end of the Amalfi Coast, in Campania. For that story, more pictures are required. So, let’s get on with the show:
Christmas photos from Lecce, South Italy
1. The city of Lecce happens to be located right in the middle of an outcropping of the unique limestone rock known as pietra leccese. When artificial light shines on it, it produces a luminance you won’t see anywhere else.
2. Winters aren’t as dark, or as long, at these southern latitudes, yet still the crowds congregate in Lecce’s Piazza Sant’Oronzo in the evenings to enjoy the cheerful sight of the Christmas lights and the municipal Christmas tree.
Christmas photos from Alberobello, South Italy
3. Alberobello has several groups of trees whose branches have been of trees whose branches have been trained to grow together into a canopy.
In December, this one, in Piazza del Popolo, becomes a kind of multi-stemmed, horizontal Christmas tree, with a fountain’s basin alive with golden carp and reflected lights.
4. The “Christmas Markets Among the Trulli” are specially decorated shops in the Rione Monti district.
Here, the owners are busy decorating their trullo for the Christmas season.
5. Alberobello celebrates the opening of the “Christmas Markets Among the Trulli” festival on 8 December with a parade.
By the time it passed Bar Centrale below our balcony a second time, many spectators had joined the parade along with the Disney characters, and nobody seemed to mind.
6. This block on Via Monte San Michele is a splendid example of the colourful displays local merchants create every holiday season in Rione Monti.
7. At night, the narrow lanes of Rione aia Piccola are lit by the Presepe di Luce, a winding course through this residential neighbourhood of trulli.
Each year, thousands of visitors stroll the route to admire the 100 luminous scenes evoking the Nativity.
8. Visitors leaving a hospitable home on the Presepe’s route, after getting a glimpse inside a “Trulli Open House”.
9. This scene of a potter at his wheel was inspired by Jeremiah 18:6. Jeremiah was prone to dire warnings. In the text, the prophet seems to be suggesting that God’s people had better shape up.
10. The origin of the trullo house-building style is unknown. There are many theories, of course.
The little stone houses certainly look mysterious, bathed in blue light, among the Presepe figures. They’re part of the long history of the Valle d’Itria and of Italy, and they make Alberobello a unique place indeed.
Christmas photos from Salerno, South Italy
11. St. Mary of the Angels, Salerno’s Duomo, has been the centre of religious and community life in the city since the 11th century.
Here, a group of piccole ballerine practise their opening act, which will precede a performance of Handel’s Messiah by the grown-ups.
12. In the Villa Comunale park, luminous mythological creatures disport themselves for the amazement of visitors.
Here the Phoenix rises majestically from the flames, overlooked by the dome of Santissima Annunziata church; and above, on a dark peak, the 6th-century Castello Arechi seems to float in the night sky over Salerno.
13. Luci d’Artista, a citywide festival of “Illuminations”, includes “Mythological Creatures” in its itinerary, involving this wonderful elephant, though I’m not sure why an elephant is considered mythological. The festival is in its 17th year and draws thousands of visitors to Salerno.
14. Adjacent to the Church of the Crucifix, the 28th edition of the Mostra d’Arte Presepiale was presented in Palazzo Piantanova.
Crowds of people lined up nightly to see incredibly detailed tabletop manger scenes – a treasured art in Campania.
15. The passeggiatta through the centro storico seems to be perpetual on Via Mercanti, and outdoor cafés like this one in front of the Chiesa della Santissima Crocifisso (Church of the Most Holy Crucifix) provide welcome relief to dry throats and sore feet.
16. Hallelujah! Handel’s Messiah performed in the Duomo. The English-language oratorio is one
of the most popular choral works in Western music.
17. Via Porta di Mare is a narrow lane that runs from Old Town to the Lungomare Trieste, Salerno’s famous promenade.
Even though the evening passeggiatta seems to have passed it by, the Christmas lights blaze with colour.
18. In front of Salerno’s Stazione, travellers can walk through the train station’s Christmas “Tree”.
Although it’s usually filled with families posing for pictures, this young visitor has the cut-out all to herself.
19. The 2022 edition of Salerno’s Luci d’Artista was described by the city’s mayor as a message of light, hope, enchantment, and wonder.
The climactic “illumination” of the exhibition was in Piazza Flavio Gioia, with its 20-metre “Tree of Life” reaching toward a starry heaven.
20. A small Christmas Mercatino filled Piazza San Agostino with shoppers, while gingerbread people flew overhead.
21. Beneath Salerno’s Piazza Portanova Christmas tree, a live television interview featured several beauty pageant contestants and a crowd of kibitzers, including us.
22. A full view of Salerno’s 30-metre tall Christmas tree in Piazza Sedile di Portanova, or Piazza Portanova for short.
As Christmas Eve grew ever nearer, the crowd in the piazza nightly grew larger.
Find more festive posts in our Italian Christmas archive
All words and photos © Joe Gartman and Pat Gartman