A coffee bar with a nondescript name (Bar Commercio), in a non-descript shopping center of a non-descript suburb of Perugia merits a Christmastime visit.
A colorful panoply of Christmas crafts – the work of Signora Susanna, bar c0-owner with husband Sergio – tops the stainless steel bar, fills the glass cases holding ice-creams in summertime and borders the rolls of candies.
Signora Susanna told me she works three months prior to December on her handicrafts and no, I could not photograph her but I could photograph Sergio, who posed proudly under his wife’s Christmas bells:
And then I noticed a sign in a display case “NO FOTO” but Susanna knew I wasn’t there to copy her designs so permission was granted:
The bar was a pageantry of snowman-topped pencils, golden angels of wood and burlap, dark blue, white and coffee-hued crocheted trees, pine cone elves and a parade of crocheted bells and trees floating above multi-colored knitted Santa boots:
…and Susanna’s creations can make your Christmas table more festive – with Christmas tree place-setters and her poinsettas as centerpieces:
Though not creations of Susanna, the good witch, La Befana, was there, too, in various sizes and colors, grasping her broom or flying on it, but always beaming….
Pino paid for our espresso and pastries as I took my last photos. I had hardly touched the pastry: too taken by the “Oh, Susanna!” wonders.
I asked Susanna before we left if all her handicrafts would be sold by Christmas.”Sicuramente,” she told me with a smile.
Read about La Befana
Click here to read about Umbria Christmas traditions
Click here to read about an Assisi Christmas
Read about the Assisi annual Christmas concert
