In 2005, I visited Vatican City right after Christmas. Here is their life sized Nativity Scene and Christmas Tree. Every Friday Lili shares her favorite photography & the stories behind the photos.
Munich has the largest Manger Market and you can find everything you need to create the perfect nativity scene. Every Friday Lili shares her favorite photography & the stories behind the photos.
A river god reclines by a water basin at the Vatican's Museo Pio-Clementino. It is believed to have been made in the time of Emperor Hadrian but based on an older Greek work. Museum Monday is an every other week series about museum news, objects, and reviews.
The small Venetian island of Murano is known for its fine glasswork. On a rainy New Year's Day I picked up these small quarter sized pieces of Murano glass that were created into necklaces as they were the cheapest "Murano Glass" I could afford. Souvenir Saturday is an every-other week series on the items that represent travel memories.
It will make for a cute photo, someone said, as I was handed a sheep. For a brief moment I cuddled with it, like it was a puppy. But the hungry animal saw my hair, and started eating it like it was grass. It wouldn't let go, and my mother continued to snap photos as I tried to figure out some way to get the sheep to stop or a way to set it down. The shepherd just laughed and laughed as the sheep snacked away. My hair felt pretty disgusting after that, but...the photos are pretty funny. Travel Missteps
Ever see locks attached to a bridge? They are Love Locks. Couples will attach a lock and then throw away the key to signify their lasting love together. I've seen them all over Europe and even started to see them in the US. (The photos here are from Frankfurt, Germany.) But the weight of these locks can damage the bridges and they are costly to remove, so many cities are trying to encourage the practice to stop.
One New Year's Day years ago I took a snowy, foggy, gondola ride in Venice, Italy. It was an otherworldly experience to be out on the water. Every Friday Lili shares her favorite photography & the stories behind the photos.
Räuchermann are German Smokers, figurines that you place incense in and then the smoke comes out of the figure, in this case, Santa's mouth where a pipe hangs from. I got this beautiful one in the medieval town of Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber. This type of crafting is from the same area of Germany that created Nutcrackers, Christmas Pyramids, and Schwibbögen. Souvenir Saturday is an every-other week series on the items that represent travel memories.
This is one of my favorite ornaments from Germany. It's a Käthe Wohlfahrt frozen moon and stars ornament. I got it at a little stall at the Frankfurt Christmas Market. Souvenir Saturday is an every-other week series on the items that represent travel memories.
As I've written before, you'll often find these porcelain houses at German Christmas Markets. You place a candle inside and the light flickers in the windows. Some even have a chimney where you can put oil to burn for fragrance or place a small incense cone to simulate a smoking chimney. This one is made by Kastel Keramik Haus (or they are also known as Lichthauser) and I purchased it at my first Christmas Market in Frankfurt. It was the last night of their market, and so I got some of these little houses for 50% off. It is called "Stone House