The doorbell rang, which was odd – we weren’t expecting anyone, and mail and that type of thing shows up in the morning.  We click on the speakerphone to see if it’s someone outside.  Nothing, so I open the door and look out.  You can imagine my surprise when I saw the individuals in this photo:

My first reaction was along the lines of “sorry folks, but Halloween’s been over for a while”, so I called my wife to come have a look and see if she could figure out what the heck it was.  She recognized the motley crew as a tradition they have in Italy too, and the leader of what Ilenia explained were the “three wise men, plus shepherd” caught on that I’m “not from around here” and explained in English that they’re collecting money for some good cause.  Apparently, you give them money and they sing, so we did, and they did – and weren’t half bad, either.  I took a quick snap of them with my phone camera, with Helen and Ilenia in the foreground.

Bizarre.