ORVIETO (TERNI) - Christmas in Orvieto is art and beauty.
The one projected on the facades of the main buildings of the city and the big star in Piazza Duomo, in a play of lights that gives emotions and warms the atmosphere of the holidays, despite the Covid emergency having canceled various events, above all Umbria jazz winter.
The palaces called into question in the Christmas setting are those of the Opera del Duomo, of the Capitano del Popolo and the seat of the Town Hall with the church and tower of Sant'Andrea.
The colors are Christmas, but the chosen themes recall forms and symbols that tell part of the artistic history of the city.
Characters taken from the frescoes by Luca Signorelli located in the Chapel of San Brizio in the Duomo are projected onto the Opera del Duomo.
The decorations and friezes that can be admired on the Palazzo del Popolo and on the church of Sant'Andrea are, on the other hand, taken from the decorations of the Orvieto-style ceramics, that is reworkings of the classic medieval decorative elements of the majolica of Orvieto, according to the lines and dictates of the art deco.
Also on the church of Sant'Andrea you can also see the Adoration of the Magi taken from the bas-relief found on the facade of the Cathedral.
While the four symbols of the coat of arms stand out on the town hall: the Cross, the Eagle, the Lion and the Goose.
Finally, along via Malabranca, from the belvedere in front of Palazzo Petrangeli, you can instead see the tapestry nativity scene on the roofs of the medieval quarter.
"Despite the pandemic and the anti-contagion limitations, we never stopped, we wanted to continue to communicate the message of a welcoming, beautiful city ready to start again and it is with this spirit that we have re-proposed our claim Regalati Orvieto", explains the mayor Roberta Tardani.
"Orvieto - he says - is a gift to be unwrapped every day, our wonders are many and priceless and for this Christmas we wanted to tell them through colors and light, precisely to give a message of hope and trust, also given the period so hard".
"Umbria jazz - underlines Tardani - is only a postponed appointment, but we still wanted to remember it by spreading the music throughout the city and with some images of Uj that can be admired on the street and in the main squares".
Finally, the mayor is keen to underline that "those who arrive on the Rock today will find a city to live in, even if with the right anti-Covid precautions".
Thinking about spring, Tardani imagines it as a "moment of restart, with the city ready to welcome those who want to come and visit us. Obviously, pandemic permitting".