Nativity scene lights up Italy’s Cinque Terre coast

The Manarola Nativity Scene shines from a hill next to Manarola, Cinque Terre, Northwestern Italy, on Dec. 14, 2020. Image: AFP/Marco Bertorello

One of the world’s largest nativity scenes lights up the hilltop town of Manarola in Italy’s famed Cinque Terre, joined this year by a statue honoring medics who battle coronavirus.

More than 150 figures depict shepherds and fishermen, sheep, camels and angels gathered around Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.

Lit up with eight kilometers of electricity cables, they are visible from the sea as well.

A new addition this year is a statue of a nurse with a heart next to it, a tribute to the medics working in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Italy has been hard hit by the virus, which has killed more than 65,000 people so far.

Watching the lights go on, local school teacher Elisabetta Colarusso said it was a welcome reminder of normal life.

“We need signs of hope and at least an appearance of normality,” she told Agence France-Presse.

The nativity scene dates back to 1961, when local railway worker Mario Andreoli placed a cross onto the hill opposite the town to fulfill a wish by his dying father.

He had the idea of lighting it up with a car battery, and was delighted with the result.

He used iron bars and recycled materials to create many more figures over the years, each weighing up to 20 kilograms.

At first, Andreoli — now 92 — had to carry them up the steep hill himself, but now there is a whole team putting them up each Christmas. RGA

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