Carpets of flowers, towers that walk, and food fairs

Rome has the big events and the white nights, but the festivals worth seeing are those of the villages around it, where they prepare for months and it all lasts a day.

The flower carpets

At Genzano, on the Sunday after Corpus Christi, the slope up to the church is covered for two hundred metres with pictures made of petals: hundreds of people work on them all night, and next morning the procession walks over them and destroys them. Similar infiorate are held at Bolsena and elsewhere, but the one at Genzano is the oldest and the largest.

The Macchina di Santa Rosa

At Viterbo, on the evening of 3 September, a hundred men carry on their shoulders an illuminated tower thirty metres high and weighing five tonnes through a kilometre and a half of narrow streets, in the dark. It is called the Macchina di Santa Rosa, the design changes every five years, and it is on the Unesco list of intangible heritage. It is the most impressive thing that happens in Lazio.

The sea and the lakes

In summer the coastal towns hold fish fairs almost every weekend, and on 15 August nearly all of them set off fireworks over the water. On the lakes there are historic regattas, and at Bolsena the procession of the Mysteries carries living tableaux through the town.

The food fairs

There are hundreds of them, and they are the best way to eat well for very little while camping. The best known are the strawberry fair at Nemi, the cherry fair at Celleno and the wine fair at Marino in October, when the fountain runs with wine instead of water.