Recently, the newsworthy public displays of reptiles in the US have been the disgusting animal abuse events called Rattlesnake Roundups.

In Italy, things are different. There, in the tiny town of Cocullo in the Province of L'Aquila of Italy, the first of May is the Festa dei Serpari, or Snake Festival.

From Wikipedia:

Cocullo is known for his singular patron saint's holiday, named Festa dei Serpari, in which the patron saint's statue (Domenico di Sora) is transported in procession covered with lot of snakes (mainly four-lined, aesculapian, grass and green whip snakes). The reptiles themselves are transported in procession by local serpari[4], a sort of "snake breeders", and released in the surrounding woods at the end of the holiday[5][6]. The festival, set every first May since 2012 (in the past it took place every first thursday in May), is a receptive event for Italian and foreigner tourists. In 2009 it was cancelled due to some structural damages occurred into the village after the L'Aquila earthquake [7]. This tradition, present also in coat of arms symbolism[8], substituted the ancient Roman mythologic ritual of Angitia, a snake goddess worshipped by the Marsi.

The most amazing and unusual of the crocodilians, the Gharial, is getting a new chance at life at the Crocodile Breeding Centre at Kasara.

The farm in Chitwan National Park, some 82 km (51 miles) southwest of Kathmandu, was opened in 1978 by the government with support from the Frankfurt Zoological Society in an effort to save the rapidly dwindling gharial, which is also found in neighboring India.

Six decades ago, gharials -- known for their long, slim snouts and great length, with some growing up to 7 meters (23 ft) long -- were numerous in Nepal. There were 235 in the Narayani-Rapti River, which flows near the park, alone.

But their numbers fell rapidly as they were killed for their skins, used to make purses, shoes and belts. Their eggs have been stolen for food or as a remedy for tuberculosis.

In addition, their riverside habitat has been lost to agriculture and water-control projects, with fishing nets also taking a toll.
As a result, their population is now confined to only a small area of Nepal's major rivers. A national census last year found only 102, numbers at which survival in the wild becomes difficult without help -- but that was still up from 50 in 1970, Sharma said.

The centre has three male and 12 female gharials for breeding. Workers also collect eggs from the wild before the onset of the annual floods in July, raise hatchlings in captivity and then release them into the wild.

"If it were not for this, you and I would not be able to see them now. They would have been extinct 15 to 20 years ago," Sharma said.