For several weeks, poppies, cornflowers, daisies, violets, daffodils, buttercups and other blooms cast a rainbow blanket across the fields, and tourists flock to admire the sight from the Apennines’ highest village.
La fioritura takes place in the Piano Grande (Great Plain) beneath the Sibillini Mountains, in the warmer months between late May and July.
The event is even more enchanting because you never know when it will take place... it all depends on the climate.
For 2020, the blooms peaked early this month.
Castelluccio is renowned among foodies around the world for the lentils that grow in its fields, which have Protected Geographical Indication (IGP), meaning they sell for a higher price due to the origin and quality.
The colourful spectacle began with local farmers leaving their fields fallow after the harvest, allowing wildflowers to seed themselves.
Since the 2016 earthquakes, which killed almost 300 people in central Italy, the annual blooming has taken on a deeper meaning.
The town was badly hit by the series of tremors, and the bright colours ahead of the September harvest are an important symbol of Castelluccio coming to life again.
The natural event has become a popular tourist attraction, to the point where a thousand visitors descended last weekend alone.
Castelluccio and its plains offer a magnificent landscape every moment of the year, and it’s a magical place where mankind and nature live in harmony.
But a visit to the village during la fioritura is a must if you want to witness a natural mosaic like no other.
