the festival dates back to the 18th century, when a floral carpet was set up along the "via sforza" (now "via bruno buozzi" ) in genzano. previously, in genzano, and probably in other locations of the castelli romani, the custom of preparing flower carpets for the feast of "corpus christi had" existed for some time. the tradition was born in rome in the first half of the seventeenth century and had been adopted in the localities of the alban hills probably due to the close ties of this territory with gian lorenzo bernini , the main architect of baroque celebrations. it is believed, in fact, that the tradition of creating paintings by means of flowers was born in the vatican basilica by benedetto drei , head of the florerian vatican, and of his son pietro, who had used "leafless flowers, minced to emulate mosaics" june 29, 1625, feast of saints peter and paul, the patrons of rome. a few years later, in 1633, another floral painting was made by stefano speranza, a close associate of bernini. oreste raggi says that, it was bernini himself who succeeded benedetto drei when he died, and "rome popularized this art".