11233 the nativity in torricella sicura

stefano has reported on this before and its open once again this year... created by a man called Gino ... who was given a 700 m sq area under the car park in the centre of town ... its something that is so impressive in the sense of the amount of work and the craftsmanship that has been put into this display...

what is so different to my mind as regards this as a Xmas nativity scene is the fact that the area surrounding it is a modelled photograph of life here in Teramo over the past century with detailed scenes of what life was like and the machinery used, with working miniature models,village scenes and a huge amount of humour involved in the building ... its a real surprise to find this in such a small town... and basically something due to the hard work and local knowledge of just one man who was born and bred here...

its pretty well a must to visit, the entrance is free, although there are boxes to drop a contribution in ... which goes to help maintain the place... and its an exceptional view on what many of us have seen lying around old properties or in cantinas of past life here.... its only officially open from the 23rd to the end of January... but he is happy to have people phone and arrange visits outside this time...
do not forget to sign the visitors book ... as the only way the comune will keep this running is that they see it as a success for the town so he needs your support...

[URL]http://www.cmgransasso.it/centrodocumentale/beni_culturali/musei/ginodibenedetto/intro.htm[/URL]

thats the web site with all the info... you will see that stefano, a member here with close ties to this part of abruzzo has helped on it too ... it means you can get a well translated english version... and he has been working on promoting this local view on life here in the past over many years now....