If you have a chance to go to Palio, which takes place on July 2 and August 16 every year, I say buy a plane ticket now and pack your bags for Siena, Italy! The pride and passion that permeates the air during this time of year is indescribable. You can cut the ambience with a knife--it is so thick and so detectable. It is a feeling that I have never felt before when I was there in 2006. Here is my pitiful attempt to depict exactly what Palio means to the Italian people and why you need to be there for the 2007 race.
I went to Siena with a group of teenagers. We were about to be foreign exchange students in the most beautiful country in Europe. With the program I went through, they gave all of us a tour of Siena before we headed off to our host families. In this day, Palio was the word on everyone's tongues. Palio is a horse race between 16 different city wards, or contrada. Each contrada goes back centuries, so there is much pride in owning your specific contrada name. Each contrada is represented by a flag with an animal on it. The day that I was there, each contrada drew a number and that number matched up with the horse they were to be given, which would then race the next day in the actual Palio.
Hundreds of people gathered the streets and we were just given some time to explore the city on our own. After I had eaten some delizioso (delicious) gelato, we heard cheering and screaming coming from the center of the Piazza. A few friends and I ran towards the action to see what was going on, for at this point we were clueless about the importance of Palio to the locals. We gathered among the hundreds of people in the middle of the Piazza as the hot sun beat down on our heads. We heard someone speak into a microphone and instantly hundreds of people threw their hands up in the air as if they had just won a million dollars or made a winning field goal during a football game. People were hugging and kissing--I wasn't sure what had just happened but I knew it was a big deal. Before long, a group of people all dressed in their contrada's colors began parading out of the piazza with the horse they had just received. They all shouted a song in unison which danced through air. They punched their fists in the air with a pride that I have never witnessed in my life. It was a moment that gave me chills and still gives me chills today just writing about it. Just to watch something that had been happening for hundreds of years that still happens today with so much passion is something that never happens in America. It is something that can only be appreciated once you see it.
I soon figured out that this contrada went CRAZY just because they received a horse where they knew they could possibly win the race that would give their contrada boasting rights for the rest of the year. Palio in Siena is more than just a horse race. It is a time to have pride, it is a time to celebrate, it is a time to preserve past traditions. Palio-- a representation of Italian passion at its best.
This description does not even come close to giving justice to what its like to be in Siena during Palio. It is something that everyone should have the chance to experience. Go to Siena... experience the excitement and passion for yourself!