Good morning, afternoon, evening, night, dear Friends
The end of the year is approaching, and with it the season of holidays that, especially in Europe and America, are associated with Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
So today, for the series “1000 shades of” I want to take you to a special place: Spert
“Spert is a village of 582 inhabitants… . Being the closest town to the Cansiglio forest, Spert is considered the “Gateway to Cansiglio”. (Source: Wikipedia)
Spert is a very small mountain village, whose economy is mainly based on pastoralism (the breeding of cows and sheep), the related processing of dairy products, forest maintenance and wood processing, and of course tourism. Spert is a mostly uninhabited village, many young people leave to look for easier jobs, but it has recently begun to be reborn thanks to its characteristics, and for being one of the gateways to the Cansiglio forest.
In the village there are many initiatives that attract not only the inhabitants of the nearby villages, but also many tourists. One of the most interesting is the exhibition of the Nativity scenes, so much so that Spert is also known as “The Village of Nativity Scenes”
The exhibition is absolutely spontaneous, and is the result of the work of all the villagers, who at the beginning of December set up a huge quantity of Nativity scenes. To see them you will have to walk, you will find them everywhere: on the windows of the houses, in the fields, in front of the post offices, in the alleys and under the porticos. Finding them all is a kind of treasure hunt. Some are essential and very small, others are authentic works of art, life-size sculptures. Some tell important stories, like two that I will show you later.
As I said, the exhibition is famous, and attracts many tourists on weekends. Since I was in the area on Thursday, I decided to go, so as to avoid the confusion. I first stopped at the bakery to get their [very good] bread, then I set off in search of the nativity scenes.
Follow me, and I will accompany you to Spert to find them.
The first one was easy to find, right in the village square. A tree trunk, in the pure tradition of the local woodcutters, with niches carved into the wood, which house different aspects of the nativity
Then I turned around, struck by the colors coming from the other side of the street. Right inside the bus stop there was a fantastic LGBTQ nativity scene, created by the children of the school to represent social inclusion. It was built inside an old wooden closet. On the doors, fixed with clothespins, the children’s happy holidays wish.
Then I started walking, street by street, alley by alley, following wooden arrows that indicate the direction.
Some nativity scenes are very small, leaning on the windowsills
Others are large, and occupy entire courtyards. Some are minimalist, simple wooden silhouettes, others are true works of art, extremely expressive sculptures. Here I share some of them with you.
During my walk I took more than 180 photos, obviously I can’t upload them all here, but if you have any curiosity (the smallest, the largest, the strangest) let me know and I will add the photos in the comments.
I close with the second nativity scene that struck me a lot. It is a nativity scene that tells a very particular story of this territory, about which, even with great difficulty, years ago I wrote: Vajont Dam - An Italian Story - #TeamItaly
This nativity scene is built entirely with newspaper clippings that tell of the immense tragedy of October 9, 1963. A message of hope, the new life that is born from death.
A message that is more important than ever at this moment, and that I want to dedicate to all those people, to all those friends, to all the Local Guides who are currently in war zones.
My heart is with you
, estás hablando de pesebres en tu zona.
, a las 12 de la noche del 24 y el 31 levantaré una copa 
y brindaré con todos ustedes 
como todos los años
Ho visto che la maggior parte delle opere esposte sono artigianali e che la fantasia e l’originalità non mancano. Veramente fantastico. Purtroppo non ho la foto del presepe nel guscio di noce, quando vengo rapita completamente da qualcosa mi dimentico di fare fotografie… Grazie ancora Ermes. Goditi le bellezze e la pace di quei luoghi tu che puoi.