Siena’s Claim to Fame

Most people that visit Siena may find it too low key for their taste. It is definitely not Florence, where there are two story clubs that keep you dancing until 3 am; its for sure not Rome, where you have to dodge cabs as you try and make it to your next destination on the “Spanish Steps Pub Crawl”; and yes the average age in Siena is somewhere between fifty and sixty years old. Yet, unlike any other Italian city, Siena’s claim to fame is its historic “Palio”, celebrated twice a year once in July and once in August, and with such large celebration that it puts Florence’s clubs and Rome’s pub crawls to shame.

The Sienese Palio is the historical horse race that takes place twice a year between the contrade (neighborhoods) of Siena in the main piazza, Piazza Del Campo. Originally these contradas were set up as small militias that were used to compose “The Army of the Republic” used as the defense military for the city, but now the seventeen contradas, which have their own affiliated animal, ranging from a porcupine to a unicorn, are mainly the differing neighborhoods with strong localized patriotism to each of their historical pasts.

For each Palio, ten contradas race to claim the title and to win the “Palio”, which is a handmade flag that has an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary on it (along with unlimited bragging rights until the following year). The seven contradas that did not get to participate in the previous Palio automatically get to race in the next one, and the additional three that are to participate are picked in a lottery type fashion.

If you ask any Sienese person, they will tell you that the Palio is not something to be taken lightly, in fact it is a very competitive ritual that brings out strong rivalries between particular contradas (so strong that people are even advised not to marry outside their own contrada) and gives right to schemes and plots in order to damage the performances of other contradas. In the past, particular contradas have gone as far as to bribe their opponents to lose the contrada on purpose, and even on the day of the Palio, right before the starting line drops for the race to begin, the jockeys often times are whispering amongst themselves to make last minute deals.

Besides the Palio itself the days leading up to it are some of the most exciting days for people that live in Siena and those that are visiting. Each night is filled with enormous, hectic banquets with enormous amounts of food and wine, along with parades where each contrada is decked out in their contrada’s historical dress as they beat on drums and bear their flag. The actual night before the Palio is one of the biggest nights of the year, besides the night of the victory banquet for the winning contrada. Each contrada has a “rehearsal” dinner for their “up coming victory” of the Palio, totaling up to almost twenty five thousand people eating and drinking at long banquet tables in the streets of Siena.

The Palio itself brings about fifty thousand spectators into the walls of Siena, with people hanging from banisters, out of windows, and thousands standing in the middle of Piazza del Campo hoping to catch a glance as the horses sprint by. The jockeys ride the horses bareback and are given a stick that they can use in order to get their horse go faster or to slap their opponents horse in hopes of throwing them off course. The way the course is set up, has created deadly turns where often times the jockey is thrown of the horse, yet as long as the horse crosses the finish line, with or without its jockey, the contrada can still win.

Although the weeks and days leading up to the Palio are filled with exciting parties and huge banquets, each contrada has several raging parties throughout the year, that include themes, fully stocked bars, DJs, and a couple hundred people. I had the opportunity to go to one of these parties (which was themed “Outer Space”) where I witnessed both men and women ranging from the ages of twenty to forty in full fledged alien and astronaut costumes and was offered an incredible amount free drinks, as the DJ played reggaeton that came out in the States four months earlier. These parties (besides the reggaeton), no joke, make the themed frat parties in SB seem as if a ten year old was planning his birthday and only a few people showed up.

So the next time you don’t have anything planned for July 2^nd or August 16^th, you should think about flying to Siena for the Palio where you can see true Italian history and culture at its finest, instead of spending twelve to twenty Euros to go on a pub crawl, where the only Italians you will see are the bartenders and the creepy Italian men that follow the pub crawl mob in hopes of dancing with American girls.