Presepe

Church Presepe frequently take up a whole wall

The Nativity scenes in Sicily are a much bigger deal then they are in the U.S. From what I've seen of the U.S. Nativity scenes, there's usually just a basic stable with the most fundamental biblical characters: Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Animals, and the three Kings, occasionally joined by Angels and Shepherds.

The Italian Presepe meanwhile is less a Nativity Scene than it is a Nativity City, filled with biblical and non-biblical characters alike. Shoemakers, Pizzaioli, figures playing cards, women doing laundry... And in the churches the Presepe gets even bigger. Not just little villages, but entire mountains and rivers with real running water and moving figures: men waving fruit in the market, blacksmiths pounding horseshoes, little boys tossing fishing lines in the river, etc.