Come in with the Rain

This was not the originally intended title of today's blog...

After spending a little over seven hours in the piazza today, staking out a good viewing spot near where the start and finish line is, a torrential downpour let loose on us, drenching us to the bone and forcing the postponement of the race until tomorrow. Tomorrow's forecast? Thunderstorms. So we'll see how that goes... But! Instead of lingering in our disappointment, here are some fun things that happened during our time together today.

Not all of our students were as eager as we were to get into the piazza this morning, so we sent one smiling picture, welcoming them to join us, and then another picture calling for reinforcements so that we could defend the space we had selected. Please note my war stance.

Professor E sent me to get him lunch so that he could continue fighting off intruders. He relaxed only when I came back with his sandwich and Coke ("NOT Coke Zero"), at which point he sat down to quite contentedly munch on his food.

Here are some perspective pictures for the crowd's growth over the hours. We were in the first 100 people there at 10:30 this morning. By 2pm the outer rim of the piazza center was filled in with people hoping to be right next to where the horses would run. At this point we also saw the formation of a long line of people refilling their plastic water bottles at the little fountain in the square. By 4pm the crowd was swelling, with people pushing their way up to us to try to get in our optimal position. We fought them back and stood firm. Professor got into a verbal tussle with a Sienese girl who claimed that she had a birthright to stand by the fence and be able to see everything. This was ridiculous and untrue, which he firmly communicated until she backed off. She wasn't going to win against him!! 5:30pm marked the point at which the piazza was full, yet they were somehow still filing people in. That didn't last long with the subsequent rain.

At 2:15 they brought in a fire hose type thing hooked to a water truck so that they could wet down the dirt of the racetrack. They also wet down us spectators, which we all appreciated. Our kids were yelling "ACQUA" and then squealing when they got sprayed, which the guy running the hose thought was funny, so he sprayed us extra.

The historic parade got partially underway in the piazza before the rain started, but we only got through Selva and Lupa, so here's a good shot of Aquila from the streets, sent to me by a rogue student who was out there instead of in the trenches with us.

The rain came down and the floods went up... Thunder boomed, raindrops pelted us, and puddles formed, but tens of thousands of us stayed in the square and clapped to encourage them to continue with the race. This might have worked, as the rain let up briefly before coming back with a vengeance. They hung the green flag out of the Palazzo Pubblico, the sign that the race had been postponed to the next day. Everyone whistled (Italian form of booing) but the rain immediately let loose again, so I suppose it was the right thing to do. We will reconvene tomorrow if the rain holds off, but if it rains again, the race will be bumped to Sunday, when the forecast is once again torrential downpours and thunderstorms. Maybe Monday? We'll see. Actually, they'll see. I will be back in Minnesota. ✌🏼