Il Palio--The Race

Il Palio, Sienna

We really hauled it to make it to the race on time. It almost felt like we didn't have to because we got there and pretty much didn't do anything for an hour. Literally, an hour. We saw one guy take a nap on a newspaper. All of the Siennese were milling around and talking, so I guess they weren't as bored as we were. Everyone seemed to know each other because even though Sienna is a city, it's a fairly small one, and if people are thrown together twice a year, I bet they get to know each other.

Finally, something happened! The carabineiri rode in, on horses. They did one lap around the track very slowly. Then, it looked like the one horse at the back was tripping. The guy at the front drew his sword, and then they all did and they took off at a full gallop around the track twice and then rode out of the stadium. It was pretty cool.

Then we saw Tom Hanks.

And then the parade started. It was pretty much the same deal as the bishop: the flag people came in, did their routine, took 20 steps, did the routine, etc. That ate up about two hours. That's because every contrada participates in the parades, although only 10 race. This year, only nine raced because one horse got hurt the trial night. Then they introduced the horses, one at a time, and they seemed a little high-strung.

There were two Americans sitting next to me. One of the guys was from Columbus; the other guy and his girlfriend were from Hudson, Ohio. That was pretty weird, that in the middle of a horse track in Sienna, Italy I would meet a bunch of people from Ohio. The guy from Columbus actually works in Switzerland and had read about the Palio and decided to come and see it if he was near Sienna and could. His knowledge proved to be helpful when the race began.

If you look at the picture, the start spot is in the upper left side of the circle. The men in charge stand on the wooden bridge. All of the horses line up around there, and one man reads off the order right before the race starts. The horse on the left inside (I think) determines when the race starts. He just starts, and the other horses follow him. That's when that position (whatever it is) is so important. In the Palio, there aren't any gates. There isn't a gun to start (unless there's a false start). I learned that day why in American horse racing the horses are put in those pens before the race.

So the guy started to read the names and a hush fell over the crowd. Everyone wanted to hear where their horse would be, and if he got the good spot or not. When the announcer was reading off the positions, the crowd really reacted. This guy in front of us, in a blue shirt, was really flipping out. I don't think his horse got a good spot because his was not too pleased.

The horses were mostly lined up when sounds of a scuffle could be heard. I couldn't really see anything because I was about a fourth of the way in the crowd on the upper left, near where the race starts, but I'm pretty short, so I couldn't see much--just the tops of some of the horses. Then, the announcer starts saying, "No no no, Drago! No no no!" Drago was one of the contradas. The scuffle started to heat up, but they controlled it, walked it off, and then the announcer read the order again. Well, the same thing happened. Drago was acting up. The announcer started yelling at him again, but it got more heated and then the gun went off and they took off around the track. That's when we learned how they started the race and what a false start was.

They lined up again, and the same thing happened. Now, the crowd's starting to get into it. They were pretty upset with the false start. The guy in the blue shirt was really flipping out. Some guy put his daughter on his shoulders and this man literally screamed at him to get the girl down--it's not like he could see from where we were anyway. The horses kept fighting, and the announcer kept yelling at Drago. The suits were starting to get upset. Some of them were shaking their hands at Drago, a few threw in some other gestures, and a couple just put their heads down.

The race got underway about a half hour and one more false start later. The Tortuca, favored to win, was in the back the whole time, which upset me. We couldn't tell who the winner was. Columbus told up that they announced it by draping the flag from the building on the other side of the judges' side. My guess was that the Goose won. He was apparently not the guy that this one couple was rooting for, because they were actually sobbing.

There was an altercation involved with the flags. Apparently, a difference of opinion existed between who won and who did not. The goose really did win, but another flag was put up at first, which angered the Goose fans. When the flag was switched, the other team's fans were equally, if not more, upset. One gentleman on the bridge was extremely angry and he was gesturing so wildly that I thought at one point he was going to fall off. The guy in the blue shirt was not happy, and I know this because I know some of the words he was saying.

It was interesting to see how people took the results. The geese celebrated with a parade through the town. Everyone else took down their flags quickly, as fast as we were leaving the city. There would be no flags flying but that of the geese. The goose won and none of the other contradas would fly their flags until August and the next race.