More Palio Madness

The Palio is the wildest horse race in the world. Held twice (occasionally three times) a year, the Palio has ten horses, each representing a Siena contrada (neighborhood), racing around the Piaza del Campo with the jockeys, in medieval regalia, riding bareback (at least for as long as they can stay on their horses). There are only two rules: no grabbing another horse’s reins, and the first horse across the finish line wins. With or without a jockey. The whole city goes crazy for weeks!

The only prize is a banner of the Virgin Mary; there is a new banner each year.

We plunged right into it all last summer, renting space on a balcony,soaking in the pagentryand cheering for the horse riding for our beloved contrada, Tartuca.(He lost.)

Although we were in Tuscany at the time, we avoided the November “Extraordinary” Palio last year; we felt one Palio was enough! However, we were thrilled to watch it on TV from Florence and cheered when the Tartuca horse, Remorex, won.

That was one of the wildest Palios ever! As usual, the jockeys rode each other into the walls, with the results you would expectOnly one jockey made it to the finish line, and Tartuca’s Remorex won all by himself.

This August we again missed the race (we were in Corsica) but the craziness goes on for weeks, so we didn’t miss everything. Once again, Remorex won (this time for the Selva contrada; the horses have no loyalty). And, also once again, he ditched his jockey before he got to the finish line!Yesterday was the great victory parade, which winds through the city and ends at the Piazza del Campo. It’s kind of like Mardi Gras, only crazier! Only the winning team participates.

Last November’s parade included Tortuca men dressed up as doctors, handing out slightly lewd “prescriptions.”

The Selva contrada’s parade themes included aliens,on the theory that Remorex must be oneRoman senatorswitchesangelscave womendinosaurscowboysthe longest Cadillac I’ve ever seenand, especially dear to our hearts, hippies galore.(Make Palio, not war)This morning, we awoke to loud drumming under our bedroom window as a parade of Tartucas marched by. The Palio was on August 16th, but the celebrations are still going strong on September 1st!