Natale may be past, and La Festa di Santo Stefano is over as well, but remember, in Italy the holiday season is celebrated all the way through La Festa dell'Epifania on January 6. And so, while it's true that things can be pretty quiet in Stresa in the winter, there are a few more special events, both traditional and new, happening in these days to tell you about.

On the evening of Thursday, December 30, there will be a very special (and free!) dance performance. In the beautiful auditorium of the Palazzo dei Congressi The Flying Tzars, The Imperial Russian Dance Company, will entertain all with their ballet and traditional Russian dance routines. The show begins at 9:00 pm.

On Friday, December 31, at 3:00 pm in the afternoon, New Year's Eve starts with an "Insulae Harmonicae" classical music concert, at the Parrocchia San Vittore, the church on Isola Bella. Not only is the concert free, but free water taxis have been arranged to transport guests to and from the performance. These free taxis will leave from Piazzale Lido, the Carciano boat stop.

And on January 6, for the Festa dell'Epifania, there will be the traditional procession of the Re Magi into Stresa. They will begin at 4:00 pm from the Palazzo dei Congressi.

It's la vigilia di Natale, Christmas Eve, in Stresa. It's raining, as it has been for some days now. Not the most evocative weather for this special night, but the events have gone on as planned. All evening the churches in the small frazione, the villages, of Stresa have held their annual Christmas Eve masses, and afterwards they've all served vin brule, the traditional warm, spiced wine, with the traditional cake panettone, and cioccolata, hot chocolate. One could have, if they had so wanted, made a pilgrimage through the small villages in the hills, starting at 9 pm at the Chiesa di Someraro, and then at the Chiesa di Brisino. By 10.30, if one made their way to the village of Magognino, they would have seen the live presepe. And after the mass there they could warm up at the bonfire lit outside the church. But all are aperitivi for the main midnight masses, at the larger Chiesa di Stresa and the Chiesa di Carciano, after which, of course, there was distributed more vin brule, more hot chocolate, and more panettone.

And at one house in Stresa, projected high onto an exterior wall for all to see, a beautiful Christmas image, to put one in the proper spirit, rain or not.

Let's return to Christmas in Milan...

Remember, we're in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, looking at the twinkling lights of the twirling Swarovski heart pendant hanging from the gallery's ceiling. Next, let's turn around and walk into the Piazza del Duomo, facing Milan's beautiful cathedral, and gaze at the Tiffany Christmas tree. The tree is hung with 100,000 lights and towers over the piazza on a 'base' built to look like Tiffany's distinctive turquoise boxes. The base in fact houses a temporary Tiffany shop, which will be open throughout the holiday season.

Because of this retail shop, the tree hasn't been without controversy... Milan's mayor at first disapproved of the commercial nature of the tree, but when no other sponsors for a Christmas tree appeared, and when Tiffany agreed to give a percentage of its sales from the shop under the tree to charities, the city agreed. The estimated cost of the tree is 320,000 euro. The tree was installed on December 4 and it will remain in place until January 8, 2011. Controversy or not, these sponsored displays and light show are making for a brilliant holiday season in Milan.

Some did not speak at first of what they saw, for fear of being ridiculed, but after reading other reports they came forward with their tales too. One couple gave this description of what they witnessed Friday afternoon from their apartment on the fourth floor of a building in Verbania:

"We haven't told anyone of our sighting for fear of being taken in jest ... Around 9:00 pm, Friday evening, I was in the living room and all of a sudden the room was illuminated from a light, strong and bright blue. I was scared, and instinctively I looked out the window and I saw a globe of blue light suspended in the air and after a few seconds it quickly disappeared."

Another description from another witness:

My boy and I stood with our mouths open at the view of a strange object in the skies of Verbania, where we live. The object was a glowing red sphere, larger than the planet Venus and brighter, and it was moving from one side to the other, like an airplane, but then changing direction and moving to the left. Slowly, slowly, the red light started to fade until it disappeared completely. Very soon after this another object appeared, much larger and closer, maybe 50 meters above the houses, white (or transparent, but with the lights of the city this looks the same), it had an oval shape, and it was spinning and moving in the direction of the lake. We didn't think then of UFOs, but after some searching we discovered that in the summer there were many similar reports of sightings in Italy.

Milan, like other Italian cities, is magical in winter. And it's so easy to reach from Stresa, or vice versa. Here's an early post from this blog on reaching Milan, or Milano as it's called here of course, from Stresa by train: http:going-to-milano-from-stresa.html

Continuing with our winter theme after the last post about the large mechanical presepe that will be on display in Stresa, here's another nativity scene to see in the area, and it's surely one of the most unusual ones you'll see anywhere in Italy. I'm speaking about the Presepe Sommerso in Laveno Mombello. This nativity scene is fully submerged under the waters of Lago Maggiore, in front of Piazza Caduti del Lavoro in the centre of Laveno.

The tradition was started in 1979 by a group of divers who called themselves “Friends of the Nativity Scene." There were only three statues that year, and a blessing performed before a small audience. Now, the display has grown to a total of 42 statues, assembled two to three meters below the surface of the water on five metal platforms that support a total weight of 18 tons. The statues are carved in white Vicenza stone and represent the classic Nativity figures of Mary, Joseph, the Baby Jesus and the Magi, as well as many others, such as travelers, a housewife carrying chickens and baskets, and a shepherd carrying a lamb on his shoulders. In the daytime the figures are hardly visible under the water, but after dark they seem to float in the light of the floodlights illuminating them from below.

On Christmas Eve the figure of the Christ Child is carried ceremoniously by a young married couple from the Church of St. Philip and St. James to the lakefront and blessed by the parish priest. Four scuba divers then carry the baby and an illuminated cradle and place them in the underwater manger. The statues were submerged this year on 4 December, and the display will be in place and illuminated until Epiphany on 6 January 2011.