in rome the custom of flower displays disappeared at the end of the xvii century. in genzano, on the other hand, it continued into the eighteenth century, according to an anonymous manuscript 1824 which is preserved in the central national library of rome and printed only recently, that says in genzano some families used to display flowers in front of their home on the occasion of the three different processions that took place on the anniversary of "corpus domini" , one on thursday, the other two on the following sunday. since none of the three processions passed through "via sforza" , don arcangelo leofreddi, who lived on that street, asked the bishop of albano françois-joachim de pierre de bernis for to vary the path on the thursday procession the 8th. having obtained the permit, don leofreddi "asked all the inhabitants (via sforza) to make floral decorations, each at their own expense, in front of their homes, and everyone did". there is disagreement on the date of the first flower festival in genzano: some date it back to 1778 ; others as of june 6, 1782 , the date on which the carpet covered the entire street (previous floral displays covered small garden sections).