il Palio é Vita
We were in Siena during the Palio trials, pretty much by accident. Ended up wishing we could have stayed for the the real race tomorrow (Monday, July 2).
[this is a long mess of a post, lots of images, videos, some sounds...]
the general sentiment of the Sienese
young men practicing the flag work in Santuario Santa Caterina’s piazza – with little brother documenting
Procession to the Contrade Chiocciola church, the night before the first trials
First trial runs – for horse selections
testing the starting rope drop
horses coming out onto the campo
coming to the line
start
run
The Campo filled up for the later trial runs – full colors and much rowdier…
The Contrade children groups had some of the best seats, and they were also some of the fiercest taunters
and the adults tried to out-shout each other
Some audio of the shouting contests
pan of the filling-up campo
horses and riders process by the Contrade kids
the run itself was a bit anticlimactic, at least for us gringos who didn’t know what to look for…
The track after the run
We caught the Chiocciola flags and drums procession later that evening:
