Il Palio

I spent yesterday in Siena for Il Palio. It is this huge horse race that happens twice a year, July 2 and August 16. Basically, there are 17 neighborhoods (or contrade) in Siena and each year 10 of them are chosen to compete (always the 7 that didn't compete the year before do, and then the other 3 are at random). Private owners offer the use of their horses, and 10 of approximately equal ability are chosen, then assigned at random to the contrade. The race itself is preceeded by 6 trial races, blessing of the horses, and a pageant. It is extremely competitive, like to the point of bribery and drugging and actually giving the jockeys sticks to hit each other (and block haha) with. There is this huge plaza in Siena that gets converted to a horse track, and on the inside, thousands of people pack in to watch (standing room only). There are seats but apparently the bleachers on the outside are 400 euro a ticket, and the window seats are 1200 euro, and they sell out over 6 months in advance.

So, I knew this all going in, but I still wasn't expecting the level of intensity that there was, I mean, I never really had had the desire to watch a horse race before so I couldn't really understand. But upon arrival to the city, there were banners everywhere and people shouting and drinking and all wearing their Contrade's colors. My friends and I all picked different Contrades to cheer for, bought their flags, and headed to the town square. I chose Nicchio, which has the symbol of a scallop shell.



It was hours before the actual race, and the center was already almost filled with people. We managed to find a spot near the edge of the crowd (a very difficult task that meant being crammed together for 3 hours, and fending off pervy Italian men that tried to use that to their advantage to cop a feel). About 2 hours before the race, the pageant begins, which is this huge procession around the race track of men dressed in medieval costumes and armor carrying swords and playing instruments and doing elaborate flag waving routines. Each Contrade has their own routine, and usually had two horses involved: their actual race horse and a "decorative" horse that had a rider upon it. When the pageant ends 2 hours later, the jockeys mount their horses and come out onto the track with a smaller procession this time. Our spot to watch was right where they entered for this part :) Then, lining up for the race took over a half hour. The riders go around in a circle near the starting line and get called to line up at random. You don't want to be the last one called, because that means automatically you are behind all other 9 riders who get to start at the line. (Actually only 9 total competed this year because one horse broke its knee in a trial) So it took 3 of these drawings to finally get the race started without a false start. Meanwhile, the jockeys are like fighting each other on top of their horses at the starting line and it was crazy to watch.

Anyway, I find this all really fascinating since I was there to see it, but in the end the Contrade of Oca won. There actually was a huge controversy over who really won, as Nicchio (the one I was rooting for!!!) was declared the original winner, and then about 10 minutes later (after a huge fight over the banner near the finish line) a new winner was declared. It was amazing to watch the people around me-there were grown men crying because they won, and because they lost. And people were like screaming and rushing the race track and it was just crazy.