The majesty of Siena’s Palio
Twice a year, an almost deathly silence falls on the Tuscan city of Siena. It is the moment just before the rope drops in the Piazza del Campo to signal the start of the Palio, the city’s ancient horse race and fiercest rivalry. Siena’s Palio is as mad as it is old. Ten horses and ten riders, representing ten of Siena’s seventeen contrade, or districts, race three laps of the city’s main square at breakneck speed before thousands of screaming spectators, in a tradition dating back to 1633 — the year Galileo was convicted of heresy for insisting that the Earth revolved around the Sun. Every summer, two palii are held: one on July 2, in honor of the Madonna di Provenzano, and one on August 16, the Palio dell’Assunta during the feast of the Assumption. What’s at stake?
