The flower carpets of Corpus Domini
On the slopes of Monte Subasio, a few kilometres from Assisi, Spello is one of the most beautiful villages in Umbria, built of pink and white stone, with narrow lanes, stairways and arches, and houses whose doors, windows and balconies are covered with flowers and plants, tended with love by the inhabitants, who compete every year in the "Finestre, balconi e vicoli fioriti" contest. The village has Roman origins, Hispellum, and still preserves its walls and gates of the Augustan age, such as the Porta Venere, flanked by two tall twelve-sided towers, and the Porta Consolare.
Spello is famous throughout Italy for its Infiorata, held on the night before the feast of Corpus Domini, in late May or June: throughout the night, hundreds of inhabitants, divided into groups, cover the streets of the historic centre with carpets and paintings made of flower petals, for about a kilometre and a half, creating sacred images and decorative patterns of extraordinary beauty and precision, using millions of petals collected and prepared in the previous weeks. In the morning, the carpets are admired by thousands of visitors, before the procession of the Corpus Domini walks over them. Among the artistic treasures of Spello is the Cappella Baglioni in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, frescoed by Pinturicchio in 1501 with the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Dispute in the Temple, with a small self-portrait of the painter. Outside the walls, the Villa dei Mosaici, a Roman villa with colourful floor mosaics, can be visited.
Tip: for the Infiorata, come on the night of Saturday to watch the artists at work; stop to look at the Cappella Baglioni, behind a glass screen.
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