More medieval madness on the day ...

not a bad turn-out ...

we baked in the sun while loads of parades marched around ... there was a lot of flag tossing going on (the yellow flags in this case belong to Aquila (the Eagle))

more of the parade ...

The Palio is the banner they race for .. the trophy I guess ... a bunch of bulls drag it around and they stop frequently around the circumference where the contradas have gathered .. the guys in the square all wave/shake their flags and hankies at the banner and the guys on the float ring little bells back at them .... cute.

the guys looking like judges are (I think) the head honchos from each of the 3 sectors of the city.

the timetable is very specific and never changes from year to year .. the race is timed to begin as soon as the sun has set eough so that the square is in shadow.

Game over for the Snail's jockey

... nice cornering skills ... the last two images are scans from a magazine I bought.

after a few false starts .. the race ... after which there was a massive riot as two entire contrada settled scores from the last race .. I got caught up in a human stampede which meant I didn't get as good a view as I could have. The police (who understand that these things are a part of they day) had a quiet fag and mulled over how long they should wait before trying to restore order. The horse I pulled in the sweepstakes didn't win despite being favourite. I later learnt that my jockey had last year spent 4 months drinking through a straw after everyone found out he'd been getting bribes left right and centre. He ran for a contrada having been paid not to and he blocked a bunch of other guys. The beatibngs are all part of the fun .. it's superb :)

After the race we headed for the Irish bar and met some American girls who'd just moved in to Siena to learn Italian ... they showed us some swing dance after a few drinking games.

(... first of all: Yes, it does look like Goldmember is wearing pink underwear ...)

Doing cartwheels on the way to Selva's party (the guys who won the race) .. as it turned out we missed most of the action. The parties happen at the contrada's church in the centre of their districts .. when we arrived there was a pile of horse crap in the middle of the church protected by three pews (wghich had been arranged in a triangle around it) and people had been throwing money in ... hmm :)

The winning contrada normally open their museum to the public on the day they win the palio (I'm not sure if this happens more often than this but I don't think so) .. so we had a wonder down there .. it's full of all the palios through out the ages that the contrada collected and various other medieval equipment etc etc. .. quite cool actually.

The Current Palio and the Museum

Scenes from the church earlier that night .. (scanned from a magazine) - it sort of gives an idea of the atmosphere in town over those days. I didn't want to keep my camera out after the race because of the fight and in the crowd I was asking to drop it or have it nicked - but the scenes were breathtaking - I don't think any visitor could ever really understand what all the fuss is about :D

continue to page 6 or skip to page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 7, page 8.