It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and Joseph Sciorra was ready to build his presepio in his Williamsburg apartment. A Styrofoam base was in place on a small table in the corner of the kitchen. There were plastic containers and tape and nails and dried bunches of herbs to serve as vegetation.
This year, his presepio — an elaborate Nativity and village scene traditionally built by Italians during Christmastime — would contain a pond, a stream and a waterfall for the first time. But just as he was starting to build, disaster struck. His pump broke.
