Giacomo and Rosabla Lentini with their village

Rosabla and Giacomo Lentini are the owners of Bella Pizza at Mountain View Plaza in Troutville. The couple have operated an Italian eatery at the location with their family for almost 13 years. In her spare time, Rosabla has a great hobby -- she collects Christmas houses and figurines and has built a village to countryside setting. The Lentinis moved into Ashley Plantation a bit over a year ago, but this is the first time in four years she has pulled out the village collection.

"We received our first village houses when we moved to Virginia 14 years ago, and well, it has grown," said Rosabla, an Italian native. "Outside of work, this is my hobby. My husband helps, but my girls think I am crazy." She has 56 houses, a harbor complete with boats, a carnival scene, churches, a ski setting, Santa and his sleigh and hundreds of figures. Giacomo has set up five 8-by-4-foot boards painted white and skirted with snowflake fabric that Rosabla drove to Lynchburg to get. The area behind the village has several feet of lights behind a snowflake dark blue screen. The village spreads across all of one wall of their finished basement.

The scenes go from harborside through the carnival and market to the residential area to downtown to the country side with more rural sets as well as ice skating ponds, the ski resort and several water features with real water. The moon is full behind the ski resort! The roads are made of ornamental cobblestone and brick, also items she has picked up in after-Christmas sales. There are businesses, tree stands, gazebos and more.

The Lentinis came home from work around 8 p.m. and then began another job for weeks to build the village. "l work on setting up the villages until midnight or later," she said with a laugh as Giacomo walked around behind the set-up turning on lights. "Next year I will have these boards on legs and the lights will be fixed better," he said with a laugh.

Why do they do it? It gives the husband and wife great joy to work on the scene. She buys after Christmas from Walmart, Lowe's, Belk and anywhere she can find what she likes. Most of the houses are by Lemax, though. She just keeps adding to it. "My husband gave me a whole boxed set from Sam's for my birthday. The girls, Stephania, Rossella, Valerie said, 'You're nuts, Dad!' "

As for Rosabla, she said, "It's relaxing to sit and watch the village, and pretty soon it is like I am part of it. I love it."

Certainly, enjoying the Lentinis' huge village scene one gets the feeling of "peace on Earth, goodwill to all people." Perhaps that is what attracts us to collect lighted houses and Christmas figurines.

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| By Cathy Benson