Rome recreates a miracle snowfall each summer.

Each year on 5 August Rome's Basilica di S. Maria Maggiore celebrates La Madonna della Neve (Our Lady of the Snows) by recreating a miracle snowfall during the height of summer.

According to legend, a fourth-century Roman couple wished to donate their possessions to the church, and prayed for divine guidance. On the night of 4/5 August in the year 352 the Virgin Mary appeared to the couple in a vision, telling them that a miracle would reveal a site where they should build a new church.

That same night — so the story goes — a miraculous fall of snow landed on a hill in the Esquiline district of Rome. Pope Liberius is said to have travelled to the snow-covered site, tracing an outline of the planned church whose construction was financed by the wealthy couple.