Flower Carpets (Infiorata) in Camaiore

On Corpus Christi Sunday the streets of the historic centres of Italian towns are covered with a breathtaking carpet of flowers. This is the tradition of the Infiorata, which in Italy seems to have begun in 1265 in the Vatican Basilica and was soon being imitated across the Catholic world for the decorative splendour that it lent to ecclesiastical festivals. The custom of bestrewing the streets with flowers and bush branches, and making sacred images from them, dates back to the 1930s but it was only in 1990 that the Infiorata became a true tradition.

The word “infiorata” literally means “decorated with flowers” and this is exactly how the paintings created for the occasion are made, using flower petals, earth, and sometimes even beans or wood cuttings. Tracing its origins to the 13th century, the Infiorata flower tradition as we know it today, dates back to the seventeenth century. It seems that the first flower carpets were made on the 29th of June 1625  in the Vatican Basilica by Benedetto Drei, head-florist at the Vatican, and his son Peter, who used flower petals like mosaic’s tesserae to decorate the basilica on the day of Saints Peter and Paul’s feast, the patron saints of Rome.

Later, architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, spread this art in the area around Rome, the Castelli Romani, mainly using it for the famous baroque festivals he organised. However, in Rome this custom disappeared by the end of the seventeenth century, while in the Castelli Romani it was kept alive by the locals.  In 1778, this tradition became linked to the Christian celebration of Corpus Domini when in Genzano a carpet of large, brightly coloured flowers was laid down in the centre of the street for its entire length.

Today, Infiorata Festivals are held in various parts of Italy, besides Noto in Sicily, Spello in Umbria and Genzano in Lazio, you can visit similar festivals in Camaiore and Fucecchio.