Italy honours its doctors and nurses in Christmas crib tradition.

Christmas Nativity scenes are a hugely popular tradition in Italy, and this year they have some new figures.

Doctors and nurses - heroes of Italy's battle against covid-19 - are appearing in Christmas cribs up and down the country.

• Italy: Assisi lights up Basilica with Giotto frescoes for Christmas

The Symbola foundation, which promotes Made in Italy excellence, has distributed figurines of nurses nationwide, with a lifesize version appearing in front of the Basilica in Assisi, illuminated with frescoes by Giotto every night.

• Italy: Floating Nativity scene brings Christmas magic to Venice

In Naples, the southern Italian city where Christmas cribs are an art form, artisans have been making figurines of doctors and nurses cradling Italy in their arms, in a poignant and powerful reminder of the heroic role played by medical workers in 2020.

• Italy's Cinque Terre coast lights up with giant Nativity scene

At the Forlì hospital in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, nurses and doctors are portrayed in the Christmas crib wearing their suits of protective clothing, along with the wings of angels.

Photo ANSA