Il Palio in Siena
I did some mental Math and decided 20 euros is the most I’d shell out for Il Palio. Even then, I had some reservations. So I approached the tourist information desk to find out if they could recommend a place to get cheaper tickets. They told me that it would be incredibly difficult to get tickets on the day of the race, but that I could try asking some of the restaurant owners in Piazza del Campo. “It’s very expensive though”, she informed me and without batting an eyelid told me the price: upwards of 300 euros. I could only gulp and keep shut lest my jaws dropped open!
Okay, so let me back up a bit for my regular readers. I am in Rome for the summer on an internship. Il faut profiter, I thought, from my stay in Italy and I decided to visit Florence, or Firenze as it is called in Italian, in late June. On hearing that I would be in Tuscany on the 2nd of July, my boss absolutely insisted I visit Siena to see Il Palio, a local horse race where jockeys representing different localities called contradas compete for the championship. For tourists, it is a great spectacle which is preceded by a magnificent medieval parade. However, for the locals, passions run high as fans of each contrada scream their lungs out to cheer for their team.
I had to reconcile myself to brave the heat and wait it out for a free spot. The race would start only at around 7:30 in the evening, but local boys start vying for the strategic spots even before noon. I wasn’t sure I wanted to sit under the sun for 8 hours and I decided to look at a few places like the Duomo and the basilica which John Ruskin apparently dismissed as a ‘piece of costly confectionery’. Well, Mr Ruskin, I am happy to be in Charlie’s Chocolate Factory anytime, especially when it is so beautiful to look at!
Walking through the serpentine alleyways, I saw the contrada procession marching onwards to the beat of the drums; each city ward represented by a horse and a rider dressed in appropriate colours. First came the drummers, playing it up for their contradas…
Then the flag bearers, holding the flag at first, then turning them in synchrony…
…Then twirling their flags…
…before tossing them in the air, only to catch them on their way down in perfect unison. (I wasn’t quick enough to catch the action unfold for the previous contrada, and so the difference in the flag).
Then came some swaggering (or in the following case solemn-looking) swordsman…
…and then the horseman who were clearly the stars of the day! The expression on the groom’s face says it all…
It was around 4 o’ clock and time to get back to Piazza del Campo, if I wanted a good spot. The Piazza was beginning to fill-up even under the blazing sun. The spots closest to the track were already taken! I scrambled to get the next best.
As I waited, feeling the beads of sweat running down my body, I wondered if I was being a wee bit unreasonable on my poor self, merely to watch a medieval parade and a horse-race – the race apparently lasting all of 4 minutes?!
A few moments later, the wait seemed over as a few swordsmen on horses appeared marching to a cadence.
Before I knew it, they’d drawn their swords and charged ahead and disappeared in a few minutes!
I spent the next two or maybe three hours watching an endless procession, the Corteo Storico…
…with jockeys and their grooms…
…drummers,
flag-bearers,
distinguished-looking messengers (?),
more flag-bearers,
children with wreath-like decorations around their arms…
and then some horsemen with chicken masks…
and some with snake masks…
…all of these times 20, and you should have a fair idea of the pageant! Piazza del Campo was getting more crowded by the minute, and every available space in and around it was bursting with people.
Some looked pensive..
Some gesticulated wildly…
…and some waved flags to support their contradas.
And then the jockeys appeared!
There was some horsing around, literally and figuratively! The race hadn’t even begun yet, but the crowd was going berserk.
Or maybe, being an outsider I didn’t appreciate the nervous anticipation of the fans as they waited for their contrada to win. I also got into a little skirmish with some local thugs, who insisted I was obscuring their view by taking pictures…erm?! I’ve never fancied myself as tall at 160 cms, but hearing them one would think I was Goliath!
And finally the race began, some three hours after the beginning of the medieval pageant. I could only take pictures by wriggling between people high on adrenalin, and trying to focus my camera quickly enough to capture the action. Phew!
The race was over even before I could blink. Alright so maybe I’m exaggerating, but the race was really over in less than two minutes. Residents of the winning contrada erupted in delight (and there seemed quite a number of them) and waved their flags frenziedly. The banner that the winner gets to take home generated a controversy this year. But that’s another story. The fans didn’t seem to care about that and engaged in some rambunctious revelry. As for me, I bid a hasty arrivederci to Il Palio and to Siena, and took the next bus back to Firenze for my next adventure.
