Christmas Markets in Italy
Join Italians as They Shop at Street Fairs for Gifts and Decorations
Rome, Assisi, Venice, Verona, Bolzano, Bresannone, Milan, Naples and Merano are among the many Italian cities and towns whose streets fill with holiday market stalls.
Especially in the northern Trento-Alto Adige region and larger cities, colorful street markets fill the month of December and the first week of January through Epiphany (Italy’s traditional time for gifts). Street sellers set up booths and kiosks covered in glittering lights and filled with ornaments, decorations, crèche sets, gifts, sweets cakes and seasonal foods.
Rome: Piazza Navona becomes the city’s Christmas Central, a huge open market filled with craftsmen selling hand-carved nativity figures, handmade lace, embroidered linens, knit hats and sweaters, lacy baby clothes, pottery figures and other handcrafts. The air is smoky from the chestnut vendors, selling fresh-roasted nuts in little cones made from newspaper. Cakes, cookies, fruit breads and bars of almond-filled nougat are stacked high. In the center of the piazza is a life-sized presepio – nativity scene.
Naples: An entire market in Naples is devoted to these presepi. Via San Gregorio Armeno is filled with craftsmen displaying their year’s work, nativity figures and entire scenes. Along with the holy family carved in loving detail are the animals, angels, wise men, even tiny details to add realism to scenes people set up in their homes.
Bastia Umbra: In this small town near Assisi in Umbria, the Sunday before December 21 brings craftsmen and collectors of old prints, as well as dealers in a variety of what-nots to the streets around the 113th-century church of Santa Croce.
Venice: For pricier and even priceless holiday ornaments, art and other antiquities, visit Venice in mid-December, when collectors and antiquarians gather in Campo San Maurizo for the Mercatino dell'Antiquariato. No bargains, but a chance to see some fine examples of Murano glass from it’s better days, or Murano lace that wasn’t made in Asia. Milan, too, has a major antiques fair, La Fiera di Sant'Ambrogio, around that church for the two weeks before Christmas
Verona: Between Milan and Venice, Verona celebrates Festa di Santa Lucia with a Christmas market in Piazza Bra, under the walls of the Arena. The fair goes on for several days before Santa Lucia day, December 12, and although it is mostly filled with eat-on-the-spot treats, small gifts and toys are sold there.
Bolzano: German and Austrian traditions run strong in the northern mountains and Alto Adige region, where Bolzano is the site of perhaps Italy’s best-known Christmas fair, which goes by the German name of Christkindlmarkt. More like a German fair, this one features more holiday ornaments and decorations than those in the south. Look for Tyrolean wood carving, brightly painted wooden tree decorations, gingerbread and Santa Lucia crowns and Advent wreaths. The craftsmen here represent an interesting mix of Italian, Austrian and German traditions. Pots of steaming hot mulled wine help fight off the Alpine winds.
Alto Adige: Similar crafts and decorations are displayed around the cathedral in Bressanone’s Weihnachtsmarkt, the entire month of December and through Epiphany. The month is filled with concerts. The dates are the same for Merano’s fair, also in the Alto Adige region.
As long as they don’t expect the abundance of Christmas markets that the Germanic countries have, travelers who chose December for their trip to Italy will find plenty of places to join the Italians as they do their Christmas shopping. And don’t forget the wonderful concentration of discount outlets in the Piedmont between Lake Maggiore and Lake Orta, with bargains on goods by Alessi, Lagostina and others.
