The Palio has to be witnessed when you visit Siena, so always try and visit either on the 2nd of July or the 16th of August. I've no idea why they run this race twice in a year. It's an amazing horserace held in the Piazza del Campo in the heart of the medieval city. The horses are blessed inside the town's churches in the morning and then as people leave the churches the festivities begin. Around 12ish, all the younger members of the city's contrada's (boroughs) and the tourists, begin to pour into the middle of the square. 50,000 people fit in the centre so it's a good idea to get into this square as soon as you can to guarantee a good spot, unless you're lucky enough to get hold of a view from the balcony of a hotel in the square. During the afternoon the sounds of drums can be heard in the old medieval streets as each contrada's procession snakes through the town, with their horse. Eventually they all line up near the entrance to the square and their respective flag men enter the square for hours these flag dudes throw their flags in the air, in competition with each other, to honour their own contrada. Then after about 3 or 4 hours of this, the palio, which they are all competing for in the horse race comes in on a carriage drawn by huge Tuscan Oxen. It's a tall banner guarded by the mayor or someone of equal standing. Once it has made a full lap of the square the local Carabinieri enter the square on horseback and begin to do laps of their own, but very impressively, they draw their sword and carry out two incredibly fast cavalry charges. Something you can't imagine seeing very often these days. IT really does feel at times like you're bag in medieval times with the ceremony and costumes and the rustic feel of the ancient city. It's truly amazing and must be seen. Once the carabinieri have finished it is time for the race to begin, which takes some time to organise. The jockeys are all tough cowboys from southern italy and all are involved in bribing and fighting for position at the beginning. The order that they all begin at are drawn by the mayor and they tussel with each other to get in position. There are generally many false starts due to cheating and ganging up, which causes the order to be lost, but once the first horse gets through the gate the rope is dropped and they are off. They do 3 full laps of the treacherous course. With dodgy corners and uneven surfaces, it has seen fatalities in the past, but I didn't witness any and after the 6 or 7 hours of ceremony the race takes about 2 minutes! and is over. The official winner is anounced and the contrada's flag is held aloft from the window of the town hall. It was hilarious when one contrada were announced the winners and then they changed their minds 2 minutes later. Winning the palio means more than life itself to many Sienese, so this was a real tragedy. The winners of the palio then go on a drunken party all night long. I would have loved to have stayed all night to witness this, but alas we left around 11ish, to get back to the Tuscan hills.
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Jun 12th, 2008
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