Monday, July 5, 2010

Il Palio

I’m skipping a couple trips to write about Siena and the Palio because it was an event like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. For my 30th birthday last weekend a couple of my closest friends from Stanford came out to visit. We partied in Rome and got some sun in Cinqueterre. The last part of the trip was set aside for the biannual Palio. Every year on July 2nd and August 16th, Siena is transported back to Medieval times when the running of the Palio overtakes every aspect of everyday life.

We took the train to Siena morning of July 1st. With all the tourists in town for the Palio it was difficult finding a room downtown, so I found a villa for us to stay at just outside of town in San Rocco a Pilli. The villa was beautiful and it gave us a glimpse into life in the Tuscan hills. Even though we didn’t spend too much time there, waking up every morning to the incredible views was well worth it.

To help understand what the Palio is all about, a little background is necessary. Siena is split into 17 different sections of town, called contrade. Of those 17, 10 are selected to race in the event. The race is just three laps around the track and takes about 90 seconds to complete. Here is a map of what the split looks like (the open space in the middle of the map is the Piazza del Campo, where the race is held).

http://www.uniaffitti.it/immagini/contrade-palio-siena.jpg

As you can see by the map, each section of town has it’s own colors, crests, and animals/symbol. To say that the people from each contrada are proud and passionate about where they grew up wouldn’t do it justice. They are fanatical. They have rivalries that are on par with anything we have in the sports world back in the States. Imagine Yankee fans and Red Sox Nation growing up across the street from one another...it can get heated.

Before we got to Siena, my friends and I decided we needed to become fans of one of the contrade. So like any normal people who had never been to Siena and knew nothing of the contrade, we picked our contrada based on our favorite color and crest. Well, to be fair we went with my favorite color, light blue. My soccer team, Lazio, is light blue so I’ve always had a soft spot for that color. The name of our contrada was Onda (meaning “wave”). I’ve also always been a beach person so I thought Onda was a no-brainer. (My friends fiance was partial to Istrice, the crested porcupine contrada, but in the end we decided that we had become Onda for life).
Here is Onda’s crest...

http://allegati.comune.siena.it:8080/palio/Allegati/3541%5Conda_big.jpg

After confirming our allegiance to Onda by buying and wearing the required team bandana, we roamed around the city to see the what Siena had to offer. Siena is an incredibly beautiful city and in many ways it felt like a smaller version of Florence. There are plenty of historical sites to see, but this entry is about the Palio so I won’t go into too much detail about the city itself. I’ll just say that it’s a must see if you ever find yourself in Tuscany...especially during the first week of July or second week of August.

Ok, back to the Palio. After roaming around the different contrade for a bit we bought our tickets for the legendary dinner the night before the Palio. Each contrade hosts a dinner for about 1,300 people where they toast their rider and pray for a victory the next day...all while drinking endless amounts of wine and eating way too much food. During the Onda dinner we were seated at one of the last tables with other foreigners who, like us, had recently pledged their love to the wave. I happened to be sitting next to a group of Italians from another city a few hours away, who had traveled every year to Siena to witness the incredible event. One of the men sitting next to me told me something that made me appreciate the uniqueness of the Palio even more. He said that the people of Siena don’t hold the Palio for to recognition or for for the tourists. They do it for the tradition. They do it to hold on to a part of their history that has been going on for hundreds of years. It is part of who they are. I mean how many of you have ever even heard of the Palio? Or if you have heard of it, do you know anything more than that it’s a horse race?? What I’m trying to say is that if you ever do witness the Palio first hand, you will forever wonder why the rest of the world doesn’t tune in each year for the 90 seconds of sheer mayhem. With the right publicity and some well placed ads, the Palio could be a worldwide phenomenon...but that’s not something that would interest the people of Siena very much.

Game Day. July 2nd, 2010. The three of us agreed that we had traveled all the way to Siena for this event and we wanted to make the most of it. The previous day we found a part of the square that we thought was ideal for the event. The Campo has kind of a bowl shape, so being in the middle you are kind of looking up to see the track. We had heard from various people that it would be smart to show up early to claim our spot...and so like any diehard fan we showed up 5 hours before the race to make sure we had the best seats. We picked some proscuitto and mortadella sandwiches, jugs of water, a bottle of grappa, a deck of cards, and some suntan lotion and we laid claim to what would become an epic spot.

We decided on our corner of the track for a few reasons:
Proximity to Onda- This corner was right next to “our” section of town, so there were bound to be a bunch of wave supporters in that section.
High Point-It was positioned at the highest point of the piazza, so you were looking down at the rest of the track. It made for an excellent viewing point for the entire race.
Shade: It was easily 90-95 degrees, so we decided that it would be smart to pick an area that would be under the shade first.
Closeness to Track- we wanted to be as close to the action as possible, so we set up shop along the railing at 2:00pm and didn’t move for the next 6 hours.


(We took time lapse pics from our spot every half hour to show what the piazza looked like as it began to fill up. I put them up on my facebook page along with other shots of Palio. Check them out if you’re interested)

Piazza del Campo in Siena is absolutely stunning. I would actually go as far as to say it’s the most picturesque piazza I’ve seen in all my travels. The surrounding buildings create a very intimate atmosphere where you actually feel like you are in an arena. The inside section holds about 20,000 to 25,000 people. Along with that are a few rows of bleachers around the whole square and people hanging out of every window and balcony. (Originally we had thought about buying tickets for one of the window seats. The seats were absurdly expensive and too far away from the action, so in the end we decided against it).

After hours of anticipation, the festivities began. Each contrada came out one at time a with a drummer and two flag bearers presenting their coat of arms. They were followed by the contrada warrior in full battle gear, the rider, and the horse they had groomed for the event. I couldn't believe how serious they all were. Not one smile. This was serious business. This was their Super Bowl, World Series, and NBA Finals all rolled into one. This part was really cool for about 7 or 8 of the contrada...but they did it not only for the 10 that were racing, but for all 17. After 6 hours in the sun, we were all ready for the race to start...

Finally, the riders came out one by one to the roar of the crowd. The faces of the jockeys were filled with intensity and nerves. It was definitely understandable. The track itself is very narrow and has corners that are basically at 90. This isn’t quite like racing at the manicured track at the Kentucky Derby. The risk and potential for serious injury in Palio is sky high.

As the horses edged toward the start line, a hush overtook the entire crowd. An announcer called out the line up as he pulled out the random draw. With each announced contrada the fans would either cheer or boo depending on their horses starting position. Nine of the ten horses were brought to the line and the announcer then goes about trying to line them up correctly, which might be one of the most difficult things I’ve ever seen. The last horse and rider stayed a few meters behind the line and waited. The horses are all bucking and on edge. Not one of them can stay still and so the announcer calls for all the horses to exit the starting line and the lineup has to start over. This happened four times. Each time the crowd becomes louder and louder, frustrated and at the edge of their seats.

On the fifth try, while the horses are still fighting to stay in their assigned positions, the 10th horse takes off from its spot a few meters back and the race is on. Onda, which started in the second position, gets an incredible start and takes the early lead. As they come around for the completion of the first lap, one of the riders gets tossed from his horse along our side of the track and is laying on the track. He’s hurt. Someone jumps from the stands and lifts his limp body over the barrier into the stands. I turn back around to just in time to see that Onda has widened his lead as he passes the halfway point. We are all freaking out...screaming for Onda to hang on for a little bit more. As the riders come around our corner for last section of lap 2, one of the horses slips and hits the barrier. As he goes down the massive body takes out another horse and rider in a huge collision. The two riders were down of the track and more people from the stands are jumping over the railing to pull the wounded riders off the track. One of the horses is on his feet and continues along the track without a rider. The other horse, I was certain was dead...or at least on its way to dying. It was crumpled up against the barrier. Its neck was in such a position that to my untrained eye looked broken. Just to make it clear, this crash happened RIGHT IN FRONT OF US...I’m talking about within 10-15 feet!! For a moment we had forgotten about the race and were fixated on the horse in front of us. Right then, another brave soul leaped over the barrier and pulled on the horses tail with all of his might in an attempt to straighten out the horses body. The horse had been pressed up against the barrier in such a way that he couldn’t get free. When he was away from the wall, he popped right up and galloped away. WOW...I was relieved that the horse was ok and also amazed that this guy just jumped in there to free the struggling animal!

In the mayhem that had just occurred, Onda was surpassed by Selva (the Forest contrada). Our jockey did his best to make up the ground he lost, but Selva began to pull away. He couldn’t be stopped at that point. Selva wins the Palio. No one cares who finishes in any other position...only the winner matters here. Within five seconds of Selva crossing the finish line their supporters were running at full sprint down the track to catch up to the victorious rider. Old and young supporters all in tears as they celebrated their win.

Emotions were running high all around us as the supporters of the other contrade were also in tears after the race ended differently than they had played it out in their heads. The diehard Onda fans were the most distraught, after tasting victory for two laps. My friends and I were more in shock than anything else. We were upset that Onda hadn’t won, but we were more in awe of the complete spectacle that had taken place in front of us. My heart was racing and I couldn’t focus my mind. There was too much going on around me.

After a while, we began to calm down and realized that the three of us had just seen one of the coolest, most dramatic events in our lives. I have been to some amazing sporting events in my lifetime (Olympics, World Cup, Rose Bowl, watched Michael Jordan play in Madison Square Garden...), but this was in a class of it’s own. Nothing else like it in the world. It really is something you need to see for yourself to understand. If you ever do get a chance to see the Palio, suck it up and wait for place along the rail. It will be the craziest 90 seconds of your life.