Italians, it is said, know how to celebrate Christmas. Theirs is a country with deep roots in Christianity (just think of all those Renaissance churches, exquisitely decorated with ornate maestàs) and many different rituals, delicious food (so good is their panettone that it’s been wholesale adopted by most of the rest of the world) and grand, beautiful cities, of which Venice is a jewel like no other. And here, on the top floor of the largest privately owned palazzo on the Grand Canal, lives the glass designer Count Giberto Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga (the Palazzo Papadopoli has been in his family since the mid 19th century –most of it, including the rooms with the Tiepolo ceilings, is now leased to the Aman hotel) his wife Bianca, who is Deputy Chairman of Christie’s Italy and an event planner in Venice, and their five children – two of whom, Viola and Vera, are behind the burgeoning shoe brand, ViBi Venezia.
The Arrivabenes have already started preparing for Christmas, explains Bianca, “although the official opening to the Christmas festivities through Italy is on December 8th, with the Feast of L'Immacolata Concezione – the Immaculate Conception.” One of the most important days in the entire church calendar, those who are acquainted with 14th and 15th century fresco cycles will know the story of the Virgin Mary’s own conception. “Families go to mass, and there’ll be a celebratory meal, but there’s also a public holiday so maybe it’s a chance to go and ski in the Dolomites for the weekend,” she continues. “It’s also when most will put up their Christmas tree,” the practice having been popularised in Italy by the Royal Family (just as it was in the UK), specifically Queen Margherita of Savoy who decorated one in the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome in the late 19th century. “But we have already put up on our tree – we put it up on the first of December every year, with family and friends,” says Bianca.
Interestingly, regarding trees, a recent survey discovered that over 70 percent of Italians use artificial trees, which includes the Arrivabenes. “We’ve had him for twelve years, he’s huge, he’s sustainable, he’s just as beautiful as a real tree, and he pops up like an umbrella,” describes Bianca. “Every year we try to re-style, but then all these things come out of the box, baubles that my children designed when they were tiny, and you can’t not include them, so however chic we set out to make it, it becomes the old, familiar tree that we love. Although we have added to it over the years – things we chance upon.”
“Recently we’ve started hanging Giberto red Laguna glasses on the tree, tying them on with white wool,” describes Bianca. “The idea came from the way that the tree at the Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia has been decorated the past couple of years, with products from all the glassmakers on Murano – all our friends. We – the glassmakers of Murano – are decorating it again this year. It’s always so beautiful, and it is viewable by the public.” And, if you are in Venice in December, notes Bianca, it’s worth paying a visit to the island of Murano. Christmas there is well underway; it starts on the evening of 5th December with St. Nicholas’s Day, who is the patron saint of glass blowers as well as the forerunner to Father Christmas, the streets and squares become part of Natale di Vetro, filled with lights and elaborate glass sculptures, while the factories offer what is known as Furnace Food – traditional dinners prepared and cooked in the kilns.
“But all of Venice and the different islands in the lagoon are magical at Christmas,” Bianca says. “The streets are lit up, and there’s a huge Christmas tree in Piazza San Marco.” Many of the squares have Christmas markets, where you can buy glass ornaments and lace, there’s an ice-rink in Campo San Polo, and “even the gondolas are decorated for Christmas. One of the highlights is the Babbo Natale regatta – when a group of Father Christmases row up the Grand Canal, which takes place in mid-December. It’s extraordinary to see.”
Babbo Natale visits Italian children on the night of the 24th, “leaving presents in their rooms – not in stockings though. We put out tangerines for him, and he will have been sent a letter with specific requests,” says Bianca. “Most Italians also celebrate Christmas on the evening of the 24th; we’ll gather around the tree, have drinks and exchange presents, and we’ll have dinner – with fish, no meat – before we go to Midnight Mass at San Marco. The following day we’ll have a big lunch; I’ll make the table look beautiful with leaves and tangerines so that it looks really full, and we’ll use the most beautiful china and glasses, and we have turkey followed by panettone. The best comes from Milan – there are two pasticcerias in particular who really excel, Sant'Ambroeus and Marchesi – buy your panettone at one of them and it’s really yummy.”
“The next big event is New Year, when we play a funny card game called Mercante in Fiera and there’s a lot of laughing, and there is, of course, dinner.” Throughout Italy this meal traditionally includes lenticchie – lentils – which resemble small coins and “swell up when you cook them,” explains Bianca. “It is said that if you eat a lot you will prosper in the coming year.” At midnight, there are fireworks.
And then finally, there is Epiphany, “and of course another Mass,” says Bianca. However there is also La Befana, who is a kind, broomstick-riding witch who also brings little presents for children, just as Babbo Natale does, and it is for her that Italian children put out their stockings. Apparently, the Magi asked La Befana for directions to Bethlehem; she refused to help – and then, feeling guilty, followed them with an assortment of sweets that she had been baking that she was going to give to Jesus. She never found him, but equally has never given up, which is why she spends every Christmas flying around doing what she does. In Florence there is an elaborate parade led by men on horses representing the Magi, but in Venice “we have another regatta – the Regatta la Befana – when people dressed as witches race up the Grand Canal, finishing at the Rialto bridge,” recounts Bianca. “It is glorious to see – but it is also the end of Christmas, and the end of the holidays.” Happily it is just the beginning of December – “so we have all of it still to look forward to!”
Buon Natale!
