I interrupt our road trip chronicle to report on yesterday's Infiorata di Genzano. It's a festival that involves the creation of elaborate designs made of flower petals laid on the main cobblestone street of Genzano, a town south of Rome.
The townspeople create tappeti (carpets) with gazillions of different colored flower petals, sand, dirt, leaves and other plant matter.
Each year there is a theme. This year's theme is Caravaggio, 2010 being the 400th anniversary of the artist's death. This tappeto reproduces part of a Caravaggio painting.
Many, many of these boxes full of flower petals were put to use.
Here's a reproduction of Caravaggio's "Head of Medusa," which we saw last year in a museum in Florence. Gory!
The Caravaggios were interspersed with other designs such as this one:
The blue and bright green parts of the eye design below are made from colored rice.
The street is on a hill. Here's a view looking part way up.
The view from the top was so colorful. So many flowers!
This banner spells out the event: Infiorata 2010.
Here's a closeup. Does it remind anyone else of a Mark Rothko painting?
