Infiorate Decorations and Celebrations in Abruzzo

Enjoy a snapshot of how Abruzzo celebrates the ‘Infiorata’ across Casoli, San Salvo, Pineto and Giulianova courtesy of the Life In Abruzzo community. Read about its history here.

Casoli

by Kathy Ciolli Gleaves

Corpus Domini, body of Christ. A national holiday, celebrated 40 days after Easter.

Also known as the Infiorata, flower festival. As in many villages and cities, the city of Casoli paints a path from the Centro Storico, the historic center, to the church using flowers, and other organics as paint. Their path is a kilometre long, nearly a half mile, and it’s all done by local folks by hand. In the evening, after Mass, the priest leads a procession along the path. Seriously, they walk over the top of it.

This incredible painting is outside the doors to the church. These colours are all created with flower petals, grains, salt, coffee, beans, lentils, rice, flour and some dyed wood shavings. This painting is huge, see the hand in the corner? They worked on this for five months, designing, sketching, sourcing supplies, etc. At least a dozen people were working on separate sections with just a picture to go by.

Using hands, scoops, and brooms they carefully place the colors down. Up close, you can’t see the picture itself, just the many parts.

Each section of the path was different and seemed to be owned by a group or just a single family. They were all amazing.

The path stretched to the horizon!!

Some of the designs were made using stencils, some were just an outline drawn on the ground with chalk, and some seemed to be free handed.

This design was outlined in roses.

This was inside the church just before the steps to the alter. It was astounding. It actually shows up better on camera than in person. Salt, coffee grounds, rice, quinoa, and more. If you look closely, they even mix some of the ingredients to create shading.