The Macchina di Santa Rosa is a tower lit by torches and electric lights, made of light metal andmodern materials such as fiberglass (which replaced a number of years the iron, wood andpapier-mâché), about thirty feet high and weighing five tons.

On the evening of September 3rd of each year, in Viterbo, the machine is lifted and carried on the shoulders of a hundred strong men called "Facchini di Santa Rosa" along a distance of just over a mile divided between the streets, sometimes very narrow, and squares of the city center.

The transport symbolically evokes the transfer of the body of Santa Rosa, which took place in 1258 by order of Alexander IV, the then Church of Santa Maria in the church of Santa Maria Poggio delle Rose.

On July 28, 2011 was proclaimed by the Ministry of Tourism "Patrimonio d'Italia", a mark reserved for national excellence that help promote Italy's image and generate a resulttourists.