FEATURE

April 2011 Trip to Italy

I've had an admiration for flower Italian growers and exporters since 2001 when I visited Sanremo for the first time. I love the story of how the Sanremo Flower Market came into being. And, I think it's cool that thousands of families still operate viable small farms on hillsides carved from the rock overlooking the Mediterranean — holding off real estate developers and protecting the ambiance, character, and quaintness of a simple life. And, they (the Italian growers and exporters) are just simply some of the most friendly people I've ever met.

So, when I got an invitation from Juliet Cruz of the Italian Trade Commission to join a global group of reporters and writers for a press tour of SanRmeo, Albenga, and Genova this past April I jumped on it — big awkward boot on a broken ankle and all!

Because the press tour dates aligned with EUROFLORA 2011 — an event that takes place every five years celebrating the products grown throughout the Lugurian region of Italy — it was actually well past the normal season for most of the cut flower growers.

But even at the end of the cut flower season the growers were gracious hosts and we saw the most magnificent ruscus and ranunculus at the farms and then poppies, roses, carnations, calas, snapdragons, and on-and-on-and-on at the market.

Early one morning we visited the Sanremo Flower Market where Enrico Sparago explained that the market is a cooperative blending of old worlds and new. All the young growers rely on the auction to get their flowers sold and moved around Europe and the rest of the world.

But the old farmers still prefer to bring their flowers to market in baskets, crates, and boxes — standing with them, socializing, and bargaining one-on-one with their customers. Whatever is left from the market are sold to local florists and shops on the way home.

Through the fall and winter we'll post the floral designs from Euroflora 2011 on the Flower Godmother blog — it would be cruel to show you flowers now that you can't get until the Italian growing season begins in October.

In the meantime you can visit the official Euroflora website www.EuroFlora2011.it to check the show out. And take note — instead of having to wait five years to attend the next EuroFlora yourself you only have to wait four years — as the organizers have wisely decided to align their next show with the World Expo 2015 which is being hosted by Milan, Italy.

Now, THAT's a vacation worth planning — Italy in the spring of 2015 for the World's Fair (World Expo) in Milan and EuroFlora in Genova!