As I have reiterated throughout this blog, the best plan is no plan, as it offers you full flexibility to realign yourself and see all the coolest shit nearby that you may not even be aware of until you hear about it from a local. It happened again while we were in Italy and learned about the Palio di Siena. The Palio is a medieval era bareback horse around Siena’s main piazza that happens twice a year in July and August and has been taking place since the 1600s. The race pits each of the local neighborhoods against one another, for bragging rights for the year.
The day before the race, we watched a documentary on the race to get a better understanding of what we were getting ourselves into. The first thing we learned was that, in classic Italian fashion the race is typically fixed, with lots of bribes and payments happening under the table in the days leading up to the race. The crowd doesn’t know how it is fixed however, so there is also a lot of betting happening on the race itself as well. Additionally, the jockeys are not actually affiliated with the neighborhoods they are riding for, they are hired mercenaries who are also sometimes susceptible to accepting bribes from other neighborhoods. So much so, that there is a tradition where the 2nd place jockey gets the shit beaten out of him by his own fans because they assume he took a bribe to lose (only 2nd place though, which I find very amusing). There are also basically no rules. In addition to whipping your own horse to make it go faster, you can also whip the opposing horses and jockeys if they get too close to you. The track is also very small, with just 3 laps going around tight quarters. It is very common for some of the jockeys to fly off their horses mid-race and it is also possible for a riderless horse to win the race. Coincidentally, a riderless horse typically finishes in 2nd, so the remaining jockeys can avoid the aforementioned beating from their own “fans” 😂. They were very clear to emphasize that is not a tourist event, it is for the locals. However after learning that this was like the Kentucky derby, combined with a rodeo, combined with a Mardi Gras-style party, there was no way in hell we were going to miss it.
We drove up to Siena early the morning of the race, praying we could find parking and a seat at a bar before all the locals got there, which worked out well. We also had 2 other friends who we met a couple years ago in Brazil that coincidentally were in the area and met up with us in Siena for what was shaping up to be the best day ever. We found a great little bar right outside the race track and spent the next several hours pregaming for the race. As we got into the afternoon, the city streets started to fill up and each neighborhood paraded through the streets with a band and their flags. Around mid-afternoon, it was time for us to head into the square for the race. A majority of the spectators all stand in the middle of the racetrack and from what we had read once they close off the track you’re stuck in there for a few hours without bathrooms, so we had to plan accordingly.
Once we got out on the track we noticed some dark clouds overhead and about an hour later it started to downpour, to the point that the clay track was soaked and they had to postpone the race to the following day for safety reasons. Which was a huge bummer. We still had an awesome night out around Siena but unfortunately most of our friends had to work the following day, so they couldn’t stick around for the race the next day. My friend Ed and I did not have to work however, so we found a new Airbnb and prepared to do it all over again. Not going to lie, it wasn’t nearly as easy the 2nd time around. We had really given it our all the day before and we both felt quite terrible. It also didn’t help that it was really hot out the following day and we were just standing in the square baking for like 3 hours leading up to the race. Anyway, we survived and the race was amazing. There was a big collision on the 2nd lap and 3 jockeys flew off their horses, with Leocorno (team unicorn) taking their first win in several years. It was very entertaining to watch the fans after the race. Italians are very emotional people and you wouldn’t believe the amount of happy tears we saw from the winning fans. Everyone was weeping uncontrollably, which I found very hilarious (see 2nd video linked below). Unfortunately we were unable to participate in the celebrations, after 2 long days we were exhausted and went to bed.
