Siena

Today was really quite awesome. We went to Siena to see the Palio, apparently the biggest event in Italy--at least the biggest event in Florence. It is a very brutal horse race in which the riders ride without saddles and the only rule is that you cannot pull the reins of another person's horse--however you are free to knock another person off their horse, etc. There are about 40,000 people in the plaza during this time and everyone is very crazy about their team! Siena is divided into Contradas, I suppose districts is the best term, and each district is very competitive. Each district has its own mascot and colors. For the tour we had to wear these bright orange shirts with blue writing on them, so I figured I should support the Unicorns, since their colors are orange, white and blue.

We entered the plaza very early, so it was not super crowded yet. However, upon entering the plaza there are no bathrooms so I was very paranoid and did not drink any water. I did get a gelato though. At about 5:00 they shut all entrances, and you are unable to leave the plaza until the end of that race...which can be very late, depending on what time they start. At 5 the parade begins!

People dress in mideival clothing; each contrada has a rider leading the horse, two flag bearers who do tricks, a drummer, a groom and another person carrying a more elaborate flag. Once the parade started these boys refused to let us go near the fence because they have some special paper allowing them to reserve the area. But then our guide, who is Italian, was like, "there is no such thing!!" So Hanna and I--well, more so I--pushed our way through. At first I think the boys were really not happy with us, but I think they got used to it and one of them was very nice and started talking to me in English and explained a lot about the Palio.

So apparently they spend the entire year preparing for this! And they were cheering for the Wolf Team, and they came at 9 am to reserve this fence area. Apparently as soon as the race ends they have to "jump onto the race track and escort the horse back to the stable". So I asked why they need to escort the horse, and my new friend answered that they had to "protect their horse from the enemy". So suddenly this Palio became a lot more complicated! Apparently each Contrada has a rival, and the rival of the Wolf Contrada is the Porcupine Contrada. So I was like, "do you boo at the Porcupines when they pass?" And they were like,"of course not, we are GENTLEMEN". Hahahaha, I think people are very funny. Anyhow, the Dragon Contrada was favored to win, and unfortunately the Wolf Contrada had the worst horse, according to my new friend. However, they were not hoping for to Wolf Contrada to win (since they did not think that was possible), they just wanted to beat the Porcupine Contrada. After the race people get into fist fights, and they said that they would very likely be punching some Porcupine people later.

Anyhow, the reason they need to escort their horse is because members of the rival contrada will try to attack and hurt the horse!! So apparently a lot of people will go and surround the horse to protect it.

Now the interesting thing is that the race starts whenever one horse...I forget what the term was, perhaps the contrador? Anyhow the other horses line up, and the race starts whenever the contrador starts running. It could take a minute, an hour, or even the entire day! Today it really took a lot time, and there were 3 false starts. Apparently if the horses start running and the start was not fair they fire a gun to signify that they must redo the start. I learned a lot of Italian curse words because this was the first time that there were so many false starts! People were getting very impatient. The contrador, by the way, was the Dragon Contrada.

Also, each time 10 horse run, 7 by right depending on how well they did in the last race, and the other 3 by lottery. This time however, only 9 ran because the Owl Contrada's horse got injured during the preliminaries. The Owl people looked very very sad during the parade.

Apparently the Wolf Contrada has not won the Palio since 1989! Being from Boston I can definitely sympathize so I was rooting for them. ALSO, it turned out my Unicorns were not even racing!!! SIGH, I should I bought a flag for a team that was actually in the race. Oh well. The Wolf team is orange and black, so I suppose that is kind of similar.

Once the race started, my new friend suggested sitting on the fence, which I did so I had a very nice view of the entire arena! Apparently that fence is one of the best spots. I have videos of 2 of the false starts, and of the final race. It is common for horses to fall down, and they line the corners of the track with mattresses to protect people since it is common for them to tip over while turning. If the rider falls off the horse it is actually okay because the horse could still win--if it crosses the finish line first, that contrada wins!

For the race the riders run 3 laps. In the end, the Turtle contrada won! I almost fell off the fence because so many people were jumping over it, some fights broke out and people really did attack horses!!! The winner gets carried out of the stadium and is given a banner and a baby bottle because winning the Palio is like a new birth. People were so happy that they were crying! Men were sobbing hysterically because they won. New friend was like, "you must think Italians are crazy", and I was like, "well, I am from Boston, where we celebrate victory by destroying our own city..." Although there are a lot of Italians in Boston, a connection??

We followed the celebration--only the winning team celebrates, everyone else goes back and mourns. People were parading and singing (only the winners of course). I was really hungry so we ate some cold pasta and then went back to our hostel. Overall a very interesting experience. Tomorrow...not sure what we are doing yet so we will see!