Palio, part 2

The Palio di Siena is a biannual 400 year-old horse-race, run three times around the Piazza del Campo by horses representing ten of the seventeen contrade, or city wards. Jockeys must ride bareback, and do not need to be on the horse to win - it's the horse which wins, not the jockey. They're also encouraged to use their whips to hit each other, or other horses; anything goes, really. The winning contrada receives the Palio (a hand-painted silk banner, sacred to the Virgin Mary). Horses are allocated by lot, and the only opportunities the jockeys have to try out their horses are in the public prove in the days before. The horses have to be guarded twenty-four hours a day, because no matter what happens to your horse, you still have to race it. A rival contrada would not be above sabotage.. or so I'm told.
Anyway, I left at about 2:45, and ran into the Drago procession on Piazza Matteoli before they headed to the Duomo. At the Campo, the sand was being sprayed with water to soften the surface; they also sprayed the crowd, who were loving the impromptu shower - yesterday's temperature peaked around 34º. We settled down, and staked out our spot. There wasn't really anyone there to begin with, but there are worse things to do than sit and talk. If you look at the front of the Palazzo, you can see the ten flags of the contrade running (l-r: Giraffa, Torre, Leocorno, Nicchio, Bruco, Selva, Aquila, Onda, Istrice and Drago) , and above them the seven flags of the contrade not running (l-r: Oca, Chiocciola, Valdimontone, Lupa, Civetta, Tartuca and Pantera). Around 4.30, the mounted police marched through: one lap 'at leisure'; the second at gallop with swords out. Next, the Corteo Storico began, with processions from the Comune, each of the Contrade, and finally the Palio itself.

 

Part of the Torre procession (above), and (below) Istrice.

 

The ox-drawn carrozza bearing the flag of Siena and the Palio (above), and (below) the crowd waiting for the horses to line up. This was the most awe-inspiring moment of the day: after the horses came out, to cheers and shouts, the crowd - I mean, every single person - went completely quiet. There was no call for silence, just tens of thousands of people holding their breath and not saying a word while the Mossiere started calling out the order of the horses and instructing them, which sounded a lot like a school master chiding his pupils. (Leocorno, girati! Sei l'ultimo! ... Fuori tutto!) He had to restart the line-up at least three times, and the tension was almost tangible. Unfortunately, I couldn't see very well from where I was standing - I could really only see the opposite side of the Piazza, even though I was only three or four people away from the barrier. I watched the race later on youtube, but it couldn't capture the incredible movement of the crowd, and just how fast it really was. In fact, it was difficult to see exactly what was happening - we could see Onda in the lead for most of the race, followed by Selva - and noticed that there was a horse running scosso (without a jockey), but that was it. When the race was over - after, really.. about 75 seconds, we had to wait for them to bring out the flag of the winning contrada - Selva.