Infiorata

What it is

The carpet runs the length of a street, divided into large panels, each designed and made by a different team. Seen from a balcony or from the top of the hill the panels read as pictures. Up close they are petals, leaves, seeds and coloured earth. In Genzano, near Rome, the display fills a sloping street that leads up to a church. Spello, in Umbria, lays carpets through its lanes overnight. Noto, in Sicily, holds its infiorata on the third weekend of May on a steep baroque street.

Where it comes from

The practice of making pictures from petals is traced to Rome. In 1625 Benedetto Drei, who was in charge of flowers at the Vatican, laid a floral design in Saint Peter's for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. The idea spread to the hill towns south of the city. Genzano has laid its carpet for Corpus Christi since 1778. Other towns took up the custom in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Noto's festival dates from the 1980s.

How it is made

Designs are drawn months ahead. In the days before the feast, townspeople pick flowers and strip the petals, which are stored in cool cellars and caves, sorted by colour. On the eve, the outlines are chalked or laid out on paper on the paving. Through the night the teams fill each area with petals, often dampening them so that they stay in place. Carnations give reds, pinks and whites, and broom gives yellow. Wild fennel and other chopped leaves give green. Soil, coffee grounds or seeds make the dark lines.

How to take part

1. Check the date. Corpus Christi falls in late May or June, and each town sets its own programme.
2. Arrive the evening before to watch the petals being laid.
3. View from the top of the street early in the morning, before the crowds.
4. In Genzano, stay for the end, when children are let loose to run through the carpet.

Good manners

• Stay behind the barriers and off the petals until the procession has passed.
• Do not take petals from the panels.

The flowers

CarnationA fragrant flower with ruffled petals, grown worldwide for decoration and meaningRoseWoody perennial plants with showy, often fragrant flowers in many coloursFennelA tall, aromatic herb with feathery leaves and yellow umbels, used for food and spiceCornflowerA bright blue wildflower once common in European grain fieldsCommon poppyThe vivid red wildflower of fields and remembrance

Also part of it, and being written: Infiorata, Spartium junceum.

Sources and further reading

• Infiorata on Wikipedia