Rome celebrates its patrons saints with a burst of colored flowers

The Via della Coniliazione, the Great Avenue, which leads to the Plaza de San Pedro was transformed this Sunday into a vibrant color canvas in the asphalt with dozens of floral paintings created by artisan and volunteer masters from all over Italy.

Floral works with religious meaning adorned the spiritual heart of Rome in a new edition of the call Historical infiorata.

This 12th edition has had as a central theme the jubilee of hope and has materialized in floral works of 50 square meters each, made with a combination of dry petals, wooden chips, salt, colored sand, sugar and natural pigments.

From the sunset yesterday, June 28, several teams of floral artists and volunteers began an intense night workday, which culminated at 9 in the morning of this Sunday, just in time for the thousands of pilgrims who today gathered in the Plaza de San Pedro to celebrate the solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul could admire the floral upholstery in all their splendor.

This meeting of creativity and spirituality seeks not only to beautify the city, but also preserve a tradition with deep roots, which dates back to 1625, when Benedetto Drei, responsible for the Pontifical Florist, first decorated with flowers the entrance of the Basilica of San Pedro.

Although the custom vanished in the seventeenth century, its resurgence in the 21st century has returned to the Italian capital one of its most beautiful popular expressions, turning infiorata into an emblematic event that combines art, faith and culture. Within the framework of the liturgical celebrations chaired by Pope Leo XIV, this floral exhibition has offered a symbolic path of prayer and hope that unites Rome with believers around the world.