Mercatini di Natale a Verona

Every kid in early-1980s northern New Jersey knew it was Christmastime when a very particular home decor store erected its giant Santa Claus. Waving to passersby along Route 46 in Wayne, this kitschy colossus stood over thirty-feet (nine meters) outside the go-to shop for gaudy suburban lawn ornaments – the kind coveted by Jersey Italians. Heck, Tony Soprano himself shopped there. You’ll likely know the name, but only because a band from nearby New York City took it as their own and ran all the way to a Grammy nomination for “Stacy’s Mom.”

Our passel of cousins piling into cars for a Fountains of Wayne1 visit became a treasured holiday tradition. We gawked over life-size reindeer, animatronic gnomes, and fantastical dioramas from around the world (and galaxy): Santa in Japan, Santa on a Jet-Ski, Santa in a Star Wars scene with R2-D2, Santa with an apron and brick oven making pizza in Italy. Mash all that up with NYC’s Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy, Boston’s Saint Anthony’s Feast in North End, and you start to get an idea of Christmas markets in Verona.

Mercatini di Natale a Verona is a month-long pop-up of festive bazaars around the city. Those feasts and Fountains of Wayne memories flooded back last week as we strolled to Piazza Bra, where the largest market sits around L’Arena, Verona’s iconic Roman amphitheater completed in 30 A.D. In the foreground stands the giant, steel Stella Cometa2 (shooting star).

Sharing borders with Switzerland and Austria, northern Italy proudly reflects its proximity to Alpine culture this time of year. Adjacent the booths of trippa alla Veronese and risotto all’Amarone (served from a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano), brim tables of würstel and strüdel. Ready to wash it all down are steaming urns of anti-freeze: vin brulé (mulled wine), cioccolata calda (hot chocolate), and bombardino (cute little bomb), my new wintry crush.

I wondered why servings of Bombardino arrived in such small cups until I had a taste. This potent Christmas punch reads like Italian egg nogg. Made from a base of zabaione (egg yolks, sugar, Vin Santo or other sweet wine), it’s blended smooth and rich with zucchero (sugar), brandy or rum, and topped with panna fresca (whipped cream). Bombardino is a diminutive, golden, joy-inducing elixir that softens even the most strident Scrooge’s frown.

Without Thanksgiving or much of a Halloween here, what we get instead of that whiplash triple-decker pumpkin-turkey-tinsel sandwich and anxious Black Friday explosion into Mariah Carey wonderland, is a tranquil, slow-burn procession. And I dig it. There are trees, displays, and lights strung across Città Antica (oldest part of the city), but they’re not yet illuminated. That big moment happens on December 8, the national holiday of Festa dell’Immacolata Concezione (Feast of the Immaculate Conception) when everyone takes off from work and heads into the streets for the symbolic kick-off of Feste di Natale (Christmas festivities).

After its nearly fifty-year run, Fountains of Wayne closed in 2009. If in lieu of a giant Santa, my season stars with a tiny Bombardino, you’ll get no bah-humbug from me.

More soon, when the lights come on.