The Palio - Siena

Piazza del Campo was very very full the day of the Palio!

 We have been in Italy for yet another week and it has flown by. We have been enjoying it and have been keeping busy. This weekend we stayed in Siena. We both love Siena. It has it's own special charm. The people here are very proud of their city. It is almost always voted the prettiest city in Italy and it is easy to see why. The streets are cleaned multiple times a day, it rests on a hill surrounded by a large wall.It over looks the rolling hills of tuscany that are golden and green.We actually have a nice view of all of that beauty from our apartment. Oh, and we have turtle friends that live in the garden that surrounds our apartment!

The Tortise Contrada's mascot

Saturday was the Palio...AND our 1 year anniversary! It was a great way to celebrate our special day (even though it feels like the past year has flown by). The Palio is a midevil bareback horse race that happens twice a year in siena. It is life here in Siena. People say that soccer is their passion, but the Palio and their contrada (or the quarter of the city that they live in) is their life. Each region has a mascot, color schemes, a jockey, and a horse. The week of the Palio is huge here. At the beginning of the week the entire town gets transformed into a parade of colors, contrada flags, and cool street lights for each contrada. Everyone in the city wears a bandana around their necks from their contrada and singing the contrada's song happens often. We chose the Tortise contrada because the colors match our wedding colors and because that is the contrada in which the Dante Alighieri School is in. On Wednesday they have a lottery to see which team gets which horse. On Thursday they have a practice run, on Friday, they have another practice run and on Saturday it's the Palio. 

Saturday they bless the horses in the individual churches and the regions all dressed up and sing their own song. They arrive to the piazza (where the race happens) no less than 3 hours before the race to parade their colors and their horses. This was the only time that we have ever seen Italians not only be on time but early. We got to the piazza at 4:50 because they close off most of the entrances at 5, but the policeman said they had already closed the streets! So we packed in with thousands of other people to get into the piazza through the last remaining entrance. We met up with all of our friends in the piazza and enjoyed the following 3 hours of parading before the race.  There is then a flag parade where each contrada marches and they display the prize (A huge tapestry). At around 7:45 the horses come out to begin the race. They name off the order they are lined up in. The race begins and it is a whirlwind. The horses run so fast and the jockeys are falling off. They do three laps in a little over a minute the race is done. After that minute it is filled with so much emotion. Some are happy, some sad, but most excited still feeling the adrenaline from the race. After the race they go to the church to give the prize, bring the horse, and the jockey.the winning contrada sing and dance their way to the church hugging and kissing everyone. They line up to kiss the horse.We had perfect timing because we were able to be some of the first ones to get to the church so we got to see it all! There were many people crying out of happiness that their contrada won (I told you they consider the Palio to be their life). Then the rest of the night everyone was parading and singing and celebrating the victory. Definitely a day to remember!!

Favorite moment of celebration for the Goose Contrada which won the race

The day of the Palio happened to fall on our one year anniversary. It was the perfect day though. We made a yummy breakfast and lunch, we relaxed, we traded presents, and then we went to the Palio and had dinner at a nice pizzeria by our house with friends. It was the best anniversary. I loved my present which was a beautiful pair if gold earrings from ponte vecchio (in Florence). It was so fun. I feel so blessed ton have such a wonderful husband and to be here. He made this all happen.