No doubt about it: Spello’s full floral blossoming is always the Sunday morning of Corpus Domini, sixty days after Easter, when the Host is carried in solemn procession over the stunning floral tapestries carpeting Spello’s medieval alleyways and piazzas.
But to share in la passione spellana for le Infiorate, you’ll want to head to Spello around 9 pm on the Saturday night prior when the all-night labors to create the floral masterpieces start.
This Umbrian medieval hilltown fills with visitors coming to see the Infiorate-in-progress as infioratori of all ages work under tents (they’ll come down in the morning before the procession) on their group’s art work:
Visitors wander from tent-to-tent and some stop at the stands selling snacks and pause in Spello’s medieval alleyways – draped with flowers – for a photo memento of this magical night:
Others sit to sip vino and munch panini di prosciutto at outdoor tables of the small trattorie – as we did.
….and others stop in for a slice of pizza, served with a “floral touch”:
Musicians play on the streets and many groups of infioratori (makers of the floral tapestries) set up wooden tables in medieval courtyards below their homes and take a break, feasting on Umbrian goodness.
All over town, you’ll see groups slipping flower petals off the stems into boxes or snipping petals into small pieces: they’ll be used in the floral tapestries (and for months, spellani have been gathering flowers in fields and on the mountains and grouping in the evenings preparing the petals):
In every tent, the floral design is displayed near a written explanation of the significance. I would be back the next morning to see the floral masterpieces complete and looking at the designs, it was clear that work would go on all night:
Read about – and see! – Infiorate splendor, 2016
Click here to read about – and see!- the splendid restoration of Spello’s medieval tower
How lovely to see the children participating.