Ana Torres Fonseca
The word “infiorata” means “covered with flowers” or “decorated with flowers”... In the days leading up to the feast of Rome’s patron saints, Peter and Paul, large floral carpets and intricate designs made from flower petals, leaves, seeds, bark and colored soil line Via della Conciliazione.
PABLO RUBÉN MASCI
Member, National Association INFIORITALIA
An infiorata is an event that has gradually evolved into an artistic event as well, but it is fundamentally a religious event, related to an offering. It also involves an element of sacrifice at a specific time in the religious calendar—it could be Corpus Christi or the Sacred Heart. Originally, in small towns, floral carpets were made so that when the procession left the church… the Christ figure—or the Virgin, depending on the case—would walk through the town, along the processional routes, over the flowers.
This tradition began at the Vatican in 1625, when Benedetto Drei, head of the Vatican Florist's Office, created a special decoration for this holiday. It was so successful that it soon spread throughout Italy.
PABLO RUBÉN MASCI
Member, National Association INFIORITALIA
In general, it was the local people who would go into the mountains, forests, or hills to gather flowers. In Italy especially, they collected ginestra—Spanish broom—a beautiful yellow flower that blooms at this time of year, when the Catholic liturgical calendar is also particularly intense. They would scatter these flowers before the procession, creating a carpet of yellow blossoms at its feet.
“Infiorata” is not just another tradition on the Roman calendar, but the very place where modern artistic creation was born. A group of about 30 people gathers every June 28 to set in motion what many now describe as “fleeting art.”
PABLO RUBÉN MASCI
Member, National Association INFIORITALIA
I modestly specialize in drawing the designs on the ground. Not by placing a giant poster or a print of the design, but by sketching it out. If you work that way and it’s a fairly large commission, you spend the night—the whole night—and usually the morning as well. It’s a beautiful thing! You start, I don’t know, around midnight, spend the whole night drawing, and as soon as the sun comes up, you start adding the floral details.
Rome’s patron saints, Peter, the first pope, and Paul, the great evangelizer, are honored with this fleeting display of beauty on their feast day. The flowers symbolize both the beauty of creation and the promise of new life.
