Infiorate, Part II

We got up before dawn to check up on the Infiorti. Many were done, although many were still coloring in their templates. The artwork must be completed by 8 am and all traces of their work must be gone - canopies taken down, empty boxes removed, stray petals and plant bits swept up. Promptly at 08:00, the clip-board clad judges made their rounds, rating the work by category on originality, quality, subject. The Infiorate Flower Festival Competition is divided into 4 categories: Paintings, Figurative Carpets, Geometric carpets and under 14. After breakfast we once again strolled the town, admiring the finished floral art (featured & extra). After 10:00 Mass at Chiesa Santa Maria Maggiore, the Bishop, leading the Corpus Christi procession, will trample through the precious carpets of flowers, thus ending the Floral Festival and bringing to a natural conclusion of their ephemeral glory and beauty. We sat on the ledge outside our apartment and waited for the procession to arrive. The misty morning became a drizzly rain, and out came the umbrellas and raincoats. The unprepared covered their heads with upside paper bags that vendors handed out with souvenir ‘floral’ soap. We waited and waited and got wetter and wetter. It was rumored that the procession was cancelled for fear the Bishop and his attendants might fall on the steep and slippery wet cobbled streets. This year, Mother Nature proves her place as the ultimate divinity. Raindrops instead of Religion washed away the petals (extra). A bit like the wind blowing away the sand grains of an intricate and colorful Tibetan Mandala.