Millions of Flower Petals Carpet the Streets of Italy for Infiorata Festival

What we can only equate to America’s Rose Parade held in California every New Year is Italy’s spectacular Infiorata, or flower art festival; a tradition believed to have started back in the 1600s in Rome. During the months of May and June, towns all over Italy carpet the streets with stunning works of art made of colorful flower petals as a tribute to the religious event of Corpus Domini (the Christian feast of Corpus Christi). The entire process of sketching with chalk and filling it in with thousands of flower petals can take from 2 to 3 days to complete and designs can range from a simple flower petal design in front of a church to those inspired by actual religious paintings.