The Most Insane Sporting Event Ever!

Lauren and I went to Siena for the main purpose of attending "The Palio." "The Palio" is one of two horse races that take place during the year in Siena and is a huge part of Siena's culture. Siena is broken into contratas (who knows if I spelled that right) and 10 of the 17 contratas have a horse that races. Whoever wins basically has bragging rights for the whole year--it is a BIG DEAL! However, instead for me, "the Palio" was just the most insane sporting event I have ever witnessed!
All the people corralled into the center of the square. Once in there...we were stuck until the races ended.

The Palio takes place in Siena's main square, Il Campo, where they create a race track and the cheap/free seats are in the center. In order to get a good view of the race (to be near the start and the rail) we started our camp out at about 1pm that afternoon--the horse races did not start until after 7pm. So we showed up prepared with lots of water, lunch, and bread for dinner. But we definitely were not prepared for what was instore for us! Luckily we found my friend Robbie and his friends in the crowd, so we passed the time playing cards and talking.

Lauren and me at the Palio

Robbie and Me

About 4 hours before the race was to start the fun began...the rest of the evening would turn into a struggle to keep the standing locations we had been waiting for all day. The first contenders were a group of 4 or 5 italian girls who for at least 2-3 hours were constantly pushing us to get our spots. It was insane because they wanted to take a 2ft x 1ft square area of standing place in front of us and didn't even give up even when we didn't budge. There were even some times where I didn't have to really stand because I could just lean back against them (since they were pushing on me so hard) and stay standing! Finally they gave up and moved down the line, but honestly I do not know why they wanted that spot so much...I mean it wasn't a very big spot to begin with!

Finally the parade began. The parade consisted of the contratas walking around the race track in their original regalia, some of their outfits were very intersting! If I remember correctly, some of the armer had fish, swords or even a hand sticking out of it....very interesting. There were also flag throwers, although we couldn't see them preforming their routine (the curse of being short). The parade also showed off their races horses.

The Parade

One of the Race horses

After the parade, it was finally time for the races to begin. But by this time we were totally smashed against eveyone near us, about 3 fights broke out, and girls were dropping like flies (due to the heat and, I imagine, lack of water) and had to be carried away on stretchers. And right before the race a group of VERY INTENSE italians came barging through our area desperately trying to steal the spots infront of us at the rain (we easily let them through, since we didn't want to start a fight ourselves).

So finally the races were starting, or trying to start because it really didn't start for about an hour later or so. We can only guess about what was actually taking place during this time, because we could not see or understand a thing. But supposedly some of the horses were very restless and it was difficult to get them all to line up in a line (they don't use starting gates or anything). During this time the VERY INTENSE italians were yelling and screaming and who knows what.

However, after 2 false starts, the race started. We were only able to see the horses pass by the three times they circled the track, because we couldn't see anything else. At one point in the race, the very intense italians faces went into shock and the girls were crying hysterically and others were slapping them trying to knock some sense into them! It was so crazy because we had no clue what was taking place.

Finally, the race ended. The contrata I was cheering for, well maybe not chearing...but I was wearing their flag, won and we were let out of our corral full of intense italians and scared tourists (Lauren and I). Once we were out, we went in search for the least croweded area we could find. We ended up taking refuge under Siena's Duomo and sat there thanking God that we were still alive.

When we went back to our hotel for the night, we were actually able to see the race for the first time. In the end, 4 out of the 10 riders got de-horsed, one of them (the one the intense italians next to us were cheering for) got trampled by one, maybe two horses! It was so crazy, but we think that he is alright (at least he is alive).

So yes, that was our experience with "The Palio." For me, this was definitely a once in a life time experience. I am glad to have survived.