Last Sunday, as we explored Monterosso after travelling along the Cinque Terre from Riomaggiore, we stumbled across a beautiful piece of flower art. I really do mean stumbled across – I very nearly trod on it. This mosaic of petals was on the footpath.
The flowers continued along the streets of Monterosso. All we managed to find out was that it was to commemorate something and there would be a procession later. We thought the woman said people would walk through the flowers at 6pm, but that time came and went with no procession.
A few days later I remembered to find out what the whole flowers on the ground thing was all about. And thanks to Google, I can let you know.
It was to celebrate Corpus Domini, a Catholic holiday held nine weeks after Easter. I did read more on Corpus Domini, but failed to understand it well enough to pass on a decent explanation. Anyway…as part of the celebrations towns all over Italy hold an infiorata – a flower art festival – and fill the streets with petal tapestries. This is what we had found in Monterosso.
