Palio 7: The Race...

As pakdokter had earlier confessed, pakdokter never actually made it to the Palio race itself. Pakdokter had stayed locked up in pakdokter's hotel room watching Brazil being trounced by Germany in the World Cup - a game of a life-time - which pakdokter could not sacrifice for the sake of Palio 2010. Only Ravee and his partner, Siti, went ahead to the square and witnessed the race from the fringe of the square. The entire central area of the square was sardine-packed by supporters of the different contradas and the ring seats were for invited guests and officials and whatever few tickets available for the public were already sold out way in advance.

But, a special TV channel of Siena had a dedicated live telecast of the race and it was repeated continously for the next 3 days that we were in Siena. So at least pakdokter did not completely miss the race although it was not the same as being there to hear, see and feel the excitement of the event.

Anyway, maybe another year...

The pictures below were sourced from various websites to complement this posting..

the jam-packed central square..

the flags of the 17 contradas..

the parade which started at the Duomo

finally reached the Piazza del Campo..

one of the flag-bearers of a contrada..

lining up to start the race...

The Palio race is held twice a year, the first on the 2nd of July and the second on the 16th of August. The July race is in honour of the Madonna di Provenzano and the August race in honour of the Assumption of Mary.

A magnificient parade/pageant in medieval costumes precedes the race - the parade being known as the Corteo Storico.

The jockeys ride their horses bare-back ( no saddles) which made it extra difficult to remain on the horse in the high-speed run. Many jockeys were thrown off the horse during the race. The race involved going 3 times around the track encircling the piazza which usually lasts only about 90 seconds. And the winner will be the horse which made it to the finishing line first - even if it was without the jockey!

And at the grand dinner after the race, even the winning horse would be given the honour to dine at the main table representing the contrada ( in place of the jockey who fell off the horse and did not complete the race!..)

Although the race itself only lasted 90 seconds, but getting the race off may take a much longer time. Formal and informal rituals take place even before the day of the race, with each contrada navigating a strategy of horsemanship and alliances with other contradas as well as clandestine negotiations etc to ensure victory at the race. The lining up before the race had to be repeated many many times as a lot of last minute deals were negotiated at the starting point with offers and counter-offers to determine the winning horse.

Despite of this, as far as the public was concerned, there was no betting involved among them.

the winner of Palio 2010..