M:

Christmas Eve - a time for getting in supplies and sightseeing for us.

We had made use of the clear weather to get an overview of the sights from the outside during the first few days. Today delivered the promised cloud, with the added bonus of rain - so we decided to do the "insides" of those with the greatest appeal.

About 0930 we walked the 200 metres to the Arena and started with the international exhibition of presepi - which was mounted under the arena seating. It was a massive display of Christmas cribs from all around the world - a total of hundreds of thousands of hours of painstaking work. The smallest was made of one piece of pasta and 4 and a half grains of rice (we kid you not!). There were Disneyland castle type scenes from Poland, gorgeous indigenous figures from Latin America, traditional scenes from different regions in Italy and even one Indigenous Aussie entry.

Next stop, using the newly acquired Verona cards (almost every site for 2 days for E15) was the Arena itself. Its wonderful state of preservation makes it a great venue for performances even today, with an opera season that draws huge crowds - but not at this time of year. After a while in the cold (probably about 4 degrees) we decided to head back indoors, so we had a coffee at the bar under our flat then headed for the Castelvecchio. Meantime I made another fruitless effort to find an open internet cafe where I could print our tickets for the flight to Rome on Jan 4.

The Castelvecchio - check the site - is an imposing medieval fortress on a strategic stretch of the river bank of the Adige, which has been turned into a very interesting museum. It is another of those museums where, for me at least, the building itself was more impressive than the collection. After a couple of months in Italy you might describe the collection as B list, but it is very well presented, and highlights the unique features of the building itself. The bridge that connects it with the city was destroyed during WWII and rebuilt with the original materials.

This made it lunch time - and since we were passing the supermarket, the others did the Christmas shopping while I tried the previously closed internet point. Touching on my adventure first, the place I had tried in the morning was now open. It was a strange combination of services - games, internet, gambling and a bar! I had to produce a driver's licence to get 3 pages printed! Anyway, all done.

Meanwhile, back at the supermarket, the gang had tried a different one - EuroSpar. It was much bigger than the PAM we had used so far. It was at this point that plans to roast a chicken went up in smoke. There were no roasting trays in the apartment and no aluminium ones for sale in the supermarket - so we went to plan B - buy pre-cooked chicken. It took 4 to haul the booty home. Meanwhile I set up for lunch.(A: The other advantage to buying two cooked chickens was we could re-use the aluminium containers to cook our veggies.)

A little post prandial rest was followed by the second campaign - this included the Churches of St Anastasia and the Duomo. Before we got to either, we stumbled across the Church of S.Nicolo' which seemed to be a parish with a sense of social action, so we decided that would be our place for "midnight mass" at 11pm.

We targetted the Duomo after that, only to find mass on, so we only had a quick peek, and went back to S. Anastasia. After probably scores of churches in the last few weeks, there are still surprises, like the remarkable hunchback holy water fonts.

Next stop was the Torre dei Lamberti. All of us got to the very top of the 84 metres - although one unnamed older woman used a lift to go part of the way . Fabulous views over the Piazza Erbe - sorry, more wikipedia - and on to the surrounding city. Some pictures in the album.

At this point, we split up. Elias and I headed for yet another presepio display. This was one that used recycled materials. The signs did say this, but not that it was all by school kids. We kept climbing to higher and higher floors - more stairs - in the hope of nativity scenes made by adults, but there were none.

The last stop for the day on our Verona Cards was the "Magnum On Set" exhibition - photos from the Magnum agency taken on film sets largely in the 50s and 60s. The great thing about this was that it took place in an underground excavation under the Piazza Tribunale, so your attention went from the pictures to the Roman mosaics, walls, sewers and street paving and back to the pictures.

Back home for dinner which was well under way, and a quiet evening before "midnight" mass. Marthese and Elias were still a bit jet lagged and suspicious that they might be coming down with a cold, so they stayed in bed. Beth had a nap and then got up. The old folks pottered around as old folks do. Anne spoke to various McBrides depending on where they were. the rest were on for Christmas day.

We headed for S. Nicolo' and arrived at about 25 to 11, only just in time to get three seats near each other. The church was already almost full.

The liturgy was wonderful, and because they had a good sound system, without all the echo that seems to afflict many of the older churches, I was able to follow along pretty well. The church started in darkness, like the Easter mass, and while we were in the dark, five parishioners shared their stories of re-birth, which was the theme of the liturgy - responses to the loss of a child, of a partner, being a refugee, being a young person ... etc. Then, the teenagers who were in the procession lit our candles. The music was a mix of organ music and unaccompanied choral work - all very good. (A: Is there anyone in this country who is unable to sing and to cook?) The sermon was a trifle long, but really challenged people to explore the ways in which people are excluded and disempowered. The language and the allocation of roles in the liturgy was highly inclusive, and there were a couple of lovely prayers used towards the end of the mass. I'll attempt a translation of one, with apologies:

The Music of God

Mother God, you hold the earth in your womb and feed the world, give us all bread, water, oil and wine for the great banquet of humanity: Play with us the music of celebration.

God who gives birth to new ideas, be with the birth of the Arab spring and the indignant songs of the youth of the world: Play with us the music of the future.

Child God, be reborn in every day and make wonder your play friend: Play with us the music of peace.

Youthful God, precariously searching for the resurrection and forced to emigrate because "there is no place for you in your homeland": Play with us the music of imagination.

Woman God, give us the eyes of lovers so that the possibility of beginning to live again can be born in a kiss: Play with us the music of tenderness.

Stranger God, who occupies our piazzas with the colours of justice, the sounds of nostalgia and the songs of freedom, let the new humanity be reborn: Play with us the music of hope.

God who cries every time one of your daughters or sons experiences violence and sends your angels to protect them under their wings: Play with us the music of compassion.

God who dances to the dawn in every place on earth so that there is no more night, no more death: Play with us your music of the earth.

God who plays the most beautiful melodies for your daughters and sons, come into the world and make an instrument of your love from the tree of creation: Play with us the music of heaven.

After mass, which had taken about 90 minutes, but didn't seem long to me, the congregation gathered in the piazza outside eating and drinking and wishing one another "Buon Natale". We headed for home, wishing Anne a delayed happy birthday. I tried to ring mum and dad without luck. It turns out they had gone out to Andrew's at the last minute.

Staggered into bed a bit before 2.

A: This was a really special Christmas as we were all together in a lovely place very close to snow on the other side of the world!

The alarm was set for 8 am to ring Mum while Barbara was visiting her. She and Gerard went straight to the hospital after they cooked Christmas lunch for Gerard's family. It was a great relief to hear Mum's voice and this morning she sounded quite good. She had been at Clare's for a lovely Christmas Day.

We had fun opening Christmas and (for me) birthday presents and spent a relaxing time together over breakfast. We then went for a walk around this pretty town with the ice rink in full swing just near the ancient Roman Arena. The day was clear and crisp and cool- just right for a walk before lunch. There were lots of people (M: and their well dressed dogs!) doing the same thing.

M:

As we mentioned in yesterday's entry, Christmas dinner was something of a plan B - as we could not roast our own chicken. Anne and Marthese were chiefs of the kitchen, and with help from the rest of us turned out a lovely roast dinner - accompanied by valpollicella and a local white and followed by pan d'oro - a blessedly light Christmas cake. The bells of the church across the road rang at different times reminding us that it was a special day.

The sleepy part of the afternoon was taken up in introducing Elias to Dawn French and the Vicar of Dibley - a couple of women whom he had never met for some strange reason. Our light evening meal was followed by a chance to watch "It's a wonderful world" with Jimmy Stewart, accompanied by technical film critiques from Elias and Beth.