Italy: The Palio

Major bucket list item being checked off alert! But first, gelato.

Adam and his dad have had the Palio on their bucket list since 2001 when they stood on this piazza in Siena and talked about the race. I can't believe it all worked out .... and I can't believe I got to tag along! Eek. It was the coolest.

The Palio is a horse race that dates back to the 14th century. 

It happens twice a year in Siena's town square.

10 jockeys race bareback on 10 horses representing 10 neighborhoods in Siena.

It's the horse that wins, so if a rider falls off, the horse can continue the race.

The winner gets the palio, or flag, specially created for that race. And plenty of braggadocio to go with it.

The parade beforehand lasted several hours.

It was pure midieval pageantry with flag throwers, horses of various types, drums, trumpets, and oxen pulling a cart.

I was dying over the costumes alone!!!

These men were the tail end of the parade; they played trumpets that I assume announced it was time for the race to start.

They were the bearers of the Palio. You can see it from behind here. It's that narrow flag in the front.

Here's a panoramic shot of the arena. KC got tickets for the event well in advance and he had no choice of seats. In fact, he wasn't really even sure if the tickets were going to be legit until he picked them up. Alas, they were legit, and our location could not have been better. We were all pinching ourselves.  

NOW it's time to start the race. As excited as we were, a hush fell through the crowd and fellow spectators were shushing each other. It got eerily silent. We didn't really know what was going on until we heard numbers being called. The announcers were choosing the lineup of the horses.

There's one horse that gets to stay behind. That's the starting horse. When everyone is lined up, which takes awhile because everyone is so jittery, and oftentimes they have to come out of the roped area and try all over again, then the starting horse gallops past the others and that's the start of the race. On the bottom left of this shot you can see them all lined up and ready to go. I love all the spectators hanging out the windows. And that sea of people in the middle of the square was something!

I got it all on video. It was an exhilarating 3 laps!

Onda (wave) won and you can see the blue and white flag waving.

We were surrounded by Italians (and a few Seattleites and an English couple) and their reactions were intense. The winners were thrilled, all else were furious. The two Italian women behind me were screaming with rage. Aside from the race, it's my favorite part of my video, hearing them go crazy with disappointment. They were yelling at a woman in the crowd below, she was yelling right back at them. After the first lap, in the video you can see two jockeys crash into each other and fall off their horses. I tried to catch it on video, but I missed it: one of the jockeys smacked the other with his horse whip, he was so mad.

Following the race, it's tradition to hoist the winning jockey on shoulders and head to the cathedral to collect his reward: the Palio. We followed them there.

Inside there was singing and celebrating and I guess getting a blessing to boot? And here's the Palio, exiting the cathedral.

Can you see the little blue and white jockey winner?

What. A. Spectacle. Immediately after it was finished, Adam and his dad looked at each other and said, "This will not be our last Palio!"