A Walk through a River of Flowers

Each year residents of Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy participate in La Infiorata; The Feast of Our Lady of Lubriano. The celebration is marked by covering the town’s only street with flower petals. Diana Armstrong, a writer for Travel Insights, shares her experience of this wonderful day in her article; La Infiorata- A River of Flowers.

“Tomorrow is Sunday and the Feast of Our Lady of Lubriano, known among people in the area as La Infiorata. For the past 250 years, on the sixth Sunday after Easter, Lubriano’s residents have been celebrating by covering their one and only street with flower petals, transforming the charcoal granite main steet into a dizzy artist’s palette. Spring blossoms will decorate the paving for a quarter mile of the 11th century church of San Giovanni Battista to the 17th century chapel of Santa Maria del Poggio. From year to year the priest and people will come and go but constancy remains in La Infiorata. The colors of spring, like a river, flow through time.

How lucky we are to be here ahead of the advance guard of toursits. It is almost impossible to think that none of them know about this beautiful hamlet and its spectacular location. Three years ago, my Husband David and I bought part of a 16th century Jesuit monastery. We have it in condominio with a retired Italian couple, the Medoris. The fast-talking, highly energetic wife, tells me, I think I discern, that tomorrow are two families are responsible for entirely covering our 60 feet of combined road fronatge with petals and blossoms. We have never been here in May before. The Medoris are one of the four big families in town. They can call in brothers, sisters, children, nieces, and cousins living in the general area as re-enforcements to scour the surrounding hills for buds and blossoms. We, on the other hand, would have to call five different cities in the US for a troop deployment of la famiglia.”