Festival of Flowers

Every year in the nearby small medieval town of Genzano, the annual Infiorata takes place. For this "Festival of Flowers" a whole street is beautifully carpeted with an elaborate display of flowers in honor of the Catholic holiday of Corpus Christus. Each festival has a theme where different artists are invited to recreate masterpieces using only flower petals and other natural materials such as seeds and soils. Past themes have included the colors of Michelangelo and the designs of Bernini but the theme this year was the work of the Italian artist Caravaggio ("The most famous painter in Rome"), in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the artist's death. Despite the difficult Baroque aspects of dark shadows, the artists made wonderful translations of Caravaggio's paintings. Still a mystery is how they get the flowers to stay in place, although there was a man spraying water from a hose in order to keep the petals from drying out, perhaps also weighing them down.Along the side streets are art galleries and other art show displays. There are food stands around every corner where you can sample cannoli, formaggi, or roasted corn, have tastings of wine from the local regions or stop into the local gelaterias for some gelato.
And on the subject of flowers...
Reasons why you should become friendly with the sweet Bangledesh man who owns the beautiful flower stand outside your apartment: Free flowers on your walk home every night!