Am in Siena at the Palio - the famous bareback horse race.
It just finished a few minutes ago and was raced and won in sensational circumstances. There were numerous false starts - the horses simply would not line up in formation. The race itself was sensational - 3 very very fast laps around the Piazza del Campo on the dirt track. The end was amazing - green-and-white (GAW) was winning easily but blue was catching up fast. To M and I it looked like GAW held on for the win. And GAW fans certainly celebrated. When the winner's flag was raised, however, blue had won. Much emotion from green and much jumping up and down and celebrating from blue fans (including many standign near us). After protests, however, GAW was reinstated as the winner. It appeared a popular decision overall, but led to much emotion in the blue quarter. I write this in the blue part of town, and there are many tears and much emotion. Children and adults are openly weeping in the streets. The mood is sort of ugly.
The horse I was backing - pink and yellow - lost its rider about halfway through the race.
An amazing experience.
3 comments:
Hi, I just read your post about Palio in Siena. You may be interested in visiting my blog with lots of links to Palio pics and videos. If you like it, please consider linking back to me.
Ciao!
Elitre,
http://ilpaliodisiena.splinder.com
PS: GAW was Nobile Contrada dell'Oca (goose).
Glad you liked the Palio, it's one of my favourite travel experiences.
From memory, green and white is "Tartufo" (spelling in no way guaranteed), who are represented by the tortoise.
I myself am an Aquila man.
whoops, just read the end of that first comment.
the goose, right, that's what I said...
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