...Ready for It?

It is Palio Eve here, and the city is alight and abuzz! It's been a busy few days, with the reveal of the drappellone (big banner that you win if your contrada wins the race), the racing heats, the assignment ceremony where the ten horses are matched to the contrade that are running, contrada dinners and tours, and the trial runs, not to mention the students' final exams. Tomorrow is the big day, and we'll see what it brings, but for now, the lead up to the Palio, in pictures.

Il drappellone: painted by Riccardo Guasco this year, the drappellone always has to include the Virgin Mary (as she is the one being honored by the running of the race), the contrade (symbolized in the little colored balls), and a horse. At the ceremony where they reveal the banner to the public for the first time, everyone immediately loved it this year - there was clapping and many shouts of "ah, BELLO!" from the crowd. The guy next to me, an older gentleman from the Ram contrada, voiced his approval and then looked at me a few minutes later and said "hmm. Troppo blu." ("Too much blue", the color of the Shell contrada, enemies of the Ram).

La Tratta / L'Assegnazione: The ten horses were selected from a group of about 90, which ran heats over the course of several days so that the committee of Palio captains could choose which ones they wanted to race. The assignment process was hilarious, as usual: the contrade that got the best horses let out shouts of joy and clapped and sang, and the contrade that got the less-preferred horses were either dead silent or muttered curse words in Italian under their breath. Viso d'Angelo ("Angel Face") was the horse that ran for Aquila last year, and he's running again this year, for the contrada of the Porcupine. They were very excited to get Viso d'Angelo - he's one of the good horses!! He got a good jockey, named Tittia, who is known as one of the "Kings of the Piazza" due to his expertise and successful history riding in the Palio. I've decided to root for that duo since Aquila isn't running this time. Viso d'Angelo is the fourth picture, and Tittia is the guy in the last picture, dressed in Porcupine traditional jockey garb, black, blue, white, and red stripes.

Le Prove: The trial runs started Tuesday evening, and they're kinda funny. The jockeys don't run the horses very hard in these practice runs since they want to keep the horses safe and healthy, and they also don't want to get pitched off of their horses (since the race is run bareback, it's quite normal for jockeys to get thrown - and the horses can win the race even without a jockey on board!). The contrade parade their horses into the piazza one at a time, singing with their arms thrust into the air, mouths thrown wide open, and the fullest volume and timbre possible - the earth literally shakes with the vibrations of all of the voices in unison! The contrade also put their kids all together up on bleachers to watch the races, and when their horse and jockey pass them, they take off their contrada scarves and wave them in the air like the Steelers' Terrible Towels. A sight to behold! The Wolf won the first trial, the Goose won the second, Porcupine took the third (!), the fourth went to Forest, and tonight the most important trial was won by Wave. Tomorrow morning they'll run the last trial, which is nicknamed the provaccia, (the ugly trial) because no one tries at all, to preserve both horse and jockey. It's considered bad luck to win the provaccia.

Organ Concert: Following a special ceremonial mass yesterday, the organist at the Siena Cathedral put on a concert. I must have had my "yes face" on, because a couple of nuns came up to me and chatted with me before the concert started. They were kind, and the music was divine. It was hot in the cathedral since there is no air conditioning in this city, but I still got shivers and goosebumps during the last piece he played! It's something about those pedal tones...

There are police absolutely everywhere now that we're in the middle of the nerves and tension of the Palio, and they have to keep the contrada members of rival groups from fighting in the streets. I assume they're also there to deal with the absolute hordes of French tourists that have descended on the city... I also witnessed about fifteen carabinieri (members of the national police force) talking over each other trying to navigate a truck much too big for these little medieval streets through a tight left turn down an alleyway. Comical.

A fun little bonus is that I found these magazines from 1935 in the Refugio library and will be using their contents in my dissertation. Woot!

Tomorrow's the day! Stay tuned for updates, we're ready for it...