Il Palio: The Craziest 90 Seconds In Sports

Today a small group of us went to Siena to see the Palio. I've talked a little bit about it here. It's essentially the Kentucky Derby and the Super Bowl rolled into one, then shoved into a neighborhood street. It's a three lap race around the city square, ridden bareback by 10 riders.

We left right after class on the 2:30 bus, it was only an hour long bus ride to Siena. Our first order of business once we were there was to each buy flags for our respective contrade (see above). After that we headed straight for the center square to stake out a spot. We were pleasantly surprised that it wasn't already packed when we got there, so we were able to get a spot right next to the track. After that, we had about 3 hours of waiting until the race actually started. Thankfully the parade of all the contrades started about two hours before the race, so there was always something to watch. Each contrade had two flag bearers (which they waved, spun and tossed all over the place), a dressed up rider on a horse, a knight in armor, and lastly the race horse (which didn't have a rider yet). After all the hoopla, the riders finally came out. I've never seen such a large group of people be so quiet. There was some yelling during the 20 minutes it took to get the horses properly lined up and settled, but tension was high. There wasn't actually a gun, but every rider seemed to know when to go. Wave finished the first lap with a commanding lead. On the second lap, Eagle (my animal) lost control and was vaulted off his horse and into the stands, his horse continued to run the race (Interesting fact, if his horse still finished first, it still counts as a win). Then, after about 90 seconds, it was over, and Forest/Rhino had won.

What followed was chaos. The huge group of Shell girls near us started bawling, the group in front of us jumped the fence, and we followed behind them. We had been told if you don't sprint (possibly illegally) out of the square after the race you're unable to leave for another hour or two, and we had a bus to catch. After sprinting off the track, we followed a large group of Italians away from the square. It was at this time I noticed there was a trail of blood on the street. I'm not sure if it was animal or human, but I didn't want to stick around to find out. The large group we were following ran into another large group and everyone started yelling. We were certain a fight was about to break out, so we all took off our flags and put them in our pockets, not wanting to get drawn in by association. We then ran away, got some gelato, and made the bus home. ... That story ended rather anti-climatically. I'm sorry.

Well that's pretty much it for now. Tomorrow morning we're heading to Verona, then Lake Garda on Sunday.

ae