Palio!

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This week has been wonderfully busy, as Siena was absolutely mobbed with tourists visiting for the Palio. The Palio took place on Wednesday, but the preparations and pomp surrounding it are continual. It is a huge tradition around which life in Siena is very focused, which therefore makes it very difficult to explain! As I was sitting down to try to write this entry on my host brother's computer, I was telling him how much trouble I was having trying to explain everything that I had seen and how frustrated it was making me. He told me not to worry, and explained to me (in Italian, so hopefully my translation does him justice), that the Palio is impossible to explain even for people who live in Siena because it is such a unique tradition. He described it as an obsession, a dream of winning, that exists for the entire year leading up to the Palio; therefore, the amount of emotion and intensity of the Palio are actually the culmination of the emotions and expectations of the entire year.
Basically, ten of the seventeen contrade race in the Palio. Horses are drawn through a lottery, then each contrada pays a professional jockey to race the horse. The whole town comes alive with excitement and it was so much fun to be here for all of the activity. In the days leading up to the Palio, they hold 'prova,' or trials, where people can go to the campo and watch the horses practice running. The Piazza del Campo was transformed for the Palio- bleacher seating was built around the periphery, and the ground was covered in dirt for the race (which made for some pretty dirty shoes and clothes after hanging out there).
On Wednesday, my friends and I arrived in the city pretty early to take everything in, which was impossible and it was all very overwhelming. Each contrada that races in the Palio blesses their horse and then there is a huge processional from the Duomo to the Campo with the men of the contrada dressed in traditional costume; they have the contrada drummers and the 'bandiere,' or flags (watching them toss the flags was one of my favorite parts of the day). We all crammed into the Piazza del Campo, where we stood from 4 o'clock (16:00- Dad, you'll be happy to know that I have finally, after all of these years of getting mad at you for taking phone messages with time I didn't understand, learned military time), until the Palio actually began around 8. They have a special order in which the horses are supposed to line up, and the huge crowd of people becomes completely silent when the announcer comes out to read the first contrada (it's apparently a huge deal to be the first one). The horses all have to line up in this specific order, and it took about 40 minutes for them to get it correct. The horses race around the Campo three times,.....and, although it's incredibly exciting, it was over so fast! The contrada Selva won the race, and the crowd goes wild as the jockey climbs up to where the Palio (the Palio is actually a flag, and each contrada has a museum in which they store all of the Palios they have ever won) is hung to claim it. The town was alive late into the night with celebration (each contrada has an enemy contrada, so, although winning is a big deal, there is also much celebration if your enemy doesn't win). Even for the nights following the Palio (even today), Selva has been parading around the town with the Palio, drumming and singing at the tops of their lungs.
The military police from Rome come to Siena for the Palio, and they ride around the Campo on their horses before the race. One day last week, when I was in the Campo with my friend Laura waiting for the prova, these guys starting talking to us and telling us that they were the carabinieri, the police from Rome. Then they asked us if we wanted to come to the military barracks and see the horses. It sounded like a pretty shady deal to me, as I tend not to trust Italian men, but my friend thought it was ok to go with them....so we went with them to the barracks and went to the stables with all of the military horses, and we each got to ride a horse, then we fed them out of our hands. I still think the guys themselves were creepy, but it was a pretty great time.
Yesterday I spent the day sightseeing in Siena with my friend from class, Hisako. She is a wonderfully sweet, 45 year old Japanese woman who is the absolutely most anxious and frazzled person I have ever met- I think she's a little bit like a muppet on crack, but she's so much fun, and it's good because Italian is the only language we have in common. We climbed the Torre del Mangia, and visited the Museo Civico, Duomo, and Battistero (and of course, went out for gelato after it all).
This is the last week of my class, and Thursday and Friday I have exams, so I am studying hard.....mostly.

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Comments

[Debbie]

Sounds like a great time!
Elizabeth- I do love reading your blogs...mostly because you sound like you're appreciating every moment of your experience in Italy. I am very happy for you and look forward to talking to you in person. Enjoy! Hugs and kisses- Mrs. R.