Era di maggio - Primavera in festa

At the Botanical Garden of Rome, the family-friendly spring festival returns, opening the fine season and inviting you to rediscover the deep bond between humankind and nature through workshops for all ages, guided tours (also in English), music, talks, and much more.

This year, the event’s subtitle is In cammino con Francesco tra Orto Botanico e Palazzo Corsini – Tradizioni, storia e memoria alla scoperta del Santo di Assisi (Walking with Francis between the Botanical Garden and Palazzo Corsini - Traditions, history and memory in search of the Saint of Assisi).

Eight hundred years after his death, Francis of Assisi continues to fascinate. He is the Saint of the humble, the marginalised, and each of us: his life, marked by simple yet profound gestures, tells of a man who, while renouncing the world, engaged with it through a radically new perspective. Era di Maggio 2026 has chosen to dedicate this edition to him, seeking in his example a still-living voice, capable of speaking about respect for nature, simplicity, and care for all that surrounds us.

The journey discovering Francis – a multi-stage walk through the Botanical Garden, where plants come alive through stories, traditions, histories, and images – concludes inside the Biblioteca Corsiniana, where you will be able to admire a precious 14th-century illuminated manuscript depicting the Saint beneath the Cross.

The Crucifixion is the focus of an exclusive concert held within Palazzo Corsini, where on Saturday the ensemble Incanto di Roma from the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia will perform the Stabat Mater by Antonio Vivaldi.

For younger visitors, kids’ yoga sessions, sensory workshops, and creative recycling activities to make colourful crowns, alongside treasure hunts and games where they can touch and learn to recognise seeds and pulses, staples of the natural diet typical of the medieval period, here rediscovered in a modern key.

A rich and varied programme of workshops for adults and children is curated by the Accademia delle Arti Erboristiche, a training, research, and study body specialising in herbal disciplines.

The programme may be subject to change.