Siena and the Palio

I seem to be on the down-slope of this journey. I’ve been here for 11 awesome weeks and I only have 5 left! The weather is starting to warm up around here, but just like Kansas, Orvieto has very unpredictable weather. One minute it is bright and shiny and warm, and the next its thundering and rainy and cold! But the warm weather brings unwanted things to Orvieto as well…. Tourists! They come in herds of 30-50 and they are EVERYWHERE I want to go. They also like to wear matching items, so its very common to see a large group of people and they all have red hats on. It's nearly impossible to walk down the Corso (the main street) on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. But with the tourists comes good things as well. The shops have started to remodel and more and more are opening, as well as the restaurants are beginning to offer more out-door seating. So the city is becoming very lively at the same time! The market is also growing and expanding. In January, on Saturday mornings, you could find several local farmers with stands and few stands with cheese and meats and an occasional person selling clothes or shoes or something odd like rugs. However, yesterday, when I went to the market, I found that it had grown quite significantly since January. There were many more local farmers and their wives who had opened up more stands, selling a much bigger variety of fruits and veggies that I had seen yet. There were also more vendors that had set up special meat stands, where you could buy the meats already cooked, like chickens or pork, or kebabs, or hamburgers even. I also found that the market stretched from not only the main square, but down some of the side streets as well and you could buy everything from rugs, to lace products, to clothing to cooking supplies to purses to accessories, and I even saw a stand that sold toiletries and make-up related things. It was like being in a very crowded (and cheaper) shopping mall.

Last friday we went to Siena. Siena is small town, around the size of Orvieto, and its home to many universities and students. It one of the most well known towns in Italy, because of its strong traditions and rivalries within the city walls. This is the home of the famous Palio, the horse race in the main square (which is huge). The horse race takes place twice a year and every time is just as important as the first. Siena has 17 contradas (neighborhoods) and they all are represented by an animal (goose, elephant, worm, etc). They all find a professional jockey (usually never from Siena) to ride in the Palio. Then the horses are chosen at random. The 3-day prior to the race are the most crucial. These are the preliminary rounds because only 10 of the 17 contradas are allowed to proceed in the actual Palio event. These days are also important, because this is when all the dirty work takes place. The bribery and the back-stabbing and cheating. Jockeys are not only usually paid by their contrada, but usually also paid in secret by other contradas to lose. It's a very dirty sport. The day of the Palio, is a huge celebration, the 10 horses are taken into the contrada's own church and are blessed by the priest. If the horse happens to poop while in the church, this is considered good luck, because this means that the horse has no respect and that he is simply selfish and therefore will be only ruthless during the race. The Jockeys are hidden all day and are constantly surrounded by bodyguards so that they may not talk with one another or other contradas before the race. Then there is the race around the main square, which they have packed tight with dirt and people. The winner of Palio is no-less than God until the next Palio. These contradas are all rivals and they all hate each other, and as Marco says "the Palio is an excuse for them to punch one another". This is an event that draws in thousands and thousands of visitors every year and it is nearly impossible to book a hotel or a place to stay nearby unless you book a year in advance! So this has certainly been put on my list of things to do before I die. But, even without the Palio, Siena was a very nice place. Very busy, but very beautiful and friendly, with a wealth of shopping available as well.