The Palio is happening tomorrow, August 16th!
The Piazza del Campo has been transformed into a race track, as the entire city prepares for this world famous annual race... The Palio.
If you want a quick refresher on what The Palio is, and how extremely important & significant this event is to the Siennese, refer back to our August 10th post: click here
There is standing room for around 28,000 people (first-come, first-served basis) in the center of the Piazza, and another 33,000 reserved seats, which are usually booked far in advance. As we've mentioned before, this is not necessarily a tourist event; 90% of the people that come to watch are local Siennese. The Palio, to Italians, has a similar significance as the Super Bowl to Americans. But The Palio isn't so much about the individual horses... It's truly about the individual Contrade (neighborhoods) of Siena, and their status & standing within the community... If your Contrade wins The Palio, you have bragging rights all year long and your importance as a citizen within the community goes up significantly!
While standing in the center is free, (which the locals call ‘il palco dei cani’, meaning, ‘the dogs’ stand’) many of these people in the reserved seats around the perimeter & in the balconies pay hundreds to thousands of Euros to have preferred seating, balcony access and food & beverage party packages...
If you're interested, you can usually catch the live event on live streaming; just google "The Palio August 16"... All the pageantry starts around 11am EST, and the Race starts at 1pm our time...
If you have a tough time finding it, check it out later on You Tube ... Like our August 10th post says; if you want to really understand Siena, you have to understand The Palio... It's not just a one day event... They live for this, and prepare for it every day of the year! to get a feeling for the history & significance of The Palio, check out this Wikipedia article: click here
Here is a short video of last year's race... Notice that this is truly a bareback horse race; no saddles, and no stirrups! (by the way, people are usually surprised to find out
that the winning horse doesn't necessarily need to cross the finish line with a jockey)
