Spello for L'Infiorata...
What is it? Once a year in May or June, in conjunction with the religious feast of Corpus Domini, the festival of L’Infiorata (from the verb infiorare, to decorate/bedeck with flowers) is celebrated in Spello, a charming, medieval hill town in central Umbria with origins that pre-date the Romans.
Preparations include growing and gathering enormous quantities of flowers in every color and hue imaginable held in buckets that fill the streets and squares. The scents alone are intoxicating, as young and old work day and night snipping off stems and pulling off petals to create palettes of color, like pots of paint, used to create gigantic floral tapestries that line the streets of the town.
Working through the night, they fill in their line drawings with petals, until morning, when bells chime and the Bishop and his entourage emerge from Mass amid music and singing to lead the faithful in procession through the streets and over the lovely floral carpets, that soon turn to a mass of crushed petals and shredded paper. A fleeting moment of beauty, proof that nothing lasts and encouraging us all to enjoy each moment as it spreads itself before our eyes. http://www.terredelcantico.it
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| Our Spellana friend, Bonnie, invited all of us to be a part of this once-a-year event and we accepted without a pause. To help create 'carpets' of flower mosaics in this quaint pre-Roman village. |
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| Everyone in town works to prepare the flowers. The sweet baby faces had me hooked. |
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| Every cantina had boxes and boxes of flower petals awaiting usage. The scents that permeated the night air were intoxicating. |
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| First step was pasting down the patterns. The flowers, however, can only be placed on the paper, no securing in anyway is allowed. We had to wait several hours to begin the creating due to abnormally high winds. The community held its positive outlook as groups sat around chatting and preparing even more petals. Bonnie said the older women were probably praying for the winds to end. |
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| Each square has a type of flower designated for it. What an elaborate system for something that will be erased with tonight's street sweeper. |
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| Brady and I wandered the wind-free streets looking for a squadra to help while waiting for Bonnie's piazza to be ready. Surprisingly, only one team would accept our volunteerism and we both agreed, it was the best place to work. Really great people, free wine and sweet, little Italian ladies making us eat dolce! |
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| We left Spello at 1 AM as the town was truly coming alive. What an incredible experience that will be forever a part of our Italian dream! |
Preparations include growing and gathering enormous quantities of flowers in every color and hue imaginable held in buckets that fill the streets and squares. The scents alone are intoxicating, as young and old work day and night snipping off stems and pulling off petals to create palettes of color, like pots of paint, used to create gigantic floral tapestries that line the streets of the town.
Working through the night, they fill in their line drawings with petals, until morning, when bells chime and the Bishop and his entourage emerge from Mass amid music and singing to lead the faithful in procession through the streets and over the lovely floral carpets, that soon turn to a mass of crushed petals and shredded paper. A fleeting moment of beauty, proof that nothing lasts and encouraging us all to enjoy each moment as it spreads itself before our eyes. http://www.terredelcantico.it
2 comments:
What pretty colors. You picked through the 100+ pictures and chose ones that represented the evening well. :)
Thanks for inviting us to join in...what a once in a life time experience. I am glad that someone excepted our free help!
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An amazing chapter. Enjoyed the story and the pictures.
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