“Le Infiorate di Spello” is a festival which takes place every year on the day of Corpus Domini (ninth Sunday after Easter) in the lovely Umbrian town of Spello, Italy (last seen here).
The “Infioratori” (creators and decorators) of Spello work for months in order to get the perfect result regardless of the fact that each “Infiorata” (flower carpet) will last just a few hours before the passage of the Sacred procession led by Bishop – actually, this year they only lasted less than an hour due to a very windy weather.
The Infioratori can only use petals of flowers collected in the wild. Leaves and berries are allowed, but wood and any other kind of synthetic material are strictly prohibited. Each team of Infioratori has to develop a concept for an artwork (mostly with a religious theme) which will then be turned into an elaborate drawing. The gathering of all the natural materials needed starts way before the actual manifestation in order to get all the needed varieties of seasonal floral species and their colors.
On Saturday afternoon they start by placing the drawings on the ground: they can be traced using chalks or drawn onto paper and then stuck to the ground using water, glue and brooms.
Each Infiorata must have either a minimum length of 12 metres, or cover a surface of at least 24 square metres, depending on the nature of the composition: “quadro” (framework, a single scene picture) or “tappeto” (carpet, with geometrical patterns).
Before the actual work starts, protective tents and lights for the night are installed around the areas where the Infiorate are going to be assembled. The Infioratori (hundreds of them) work the whole night and every time a small portion of the final image is completed, they need to hydrate it with water vaporizers since petals cannot be held in place by using glue.
On Sunday morning, everything is done and the protections are removed.
Tourists come from all over the world to witness this beautiful event and finding a parking spot is almost impossible (even at 5AM)! So if you’re thinking about visiting Spello during this particular time of the year, I suggest a touristic bus!
The Infioratori set up small circles for the tourists to test their skills and I tried to make a cat… Not sure about the result, but it was fun!
Dress: SheIn || Sandals: Schutz || Bag: Ted Baker || Lipstick: Winky Lux.
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