Palio Madness Ends and the Goose Wins

Around 40,000 people folded themselves into the piazza del campo yesterday to watch the final Palio race.   But before the actual racing of the horses, the contradas put on their finest Medieval wear and paraded around the track.  Each district sent a drummer, two men who "threw" flags, a knight (in actual armor), the jockey and their palio horse. The pageantry was breathtaking.  My roommate Anna was in the very front row at the starting line and took beautiful pictures; here are a few:

The palio horses were not ridden during the parade, but led by their handlers. This is Drago Contrada's horse.  She was very feisty and attempted to unseat her rider more than once during the initial moments of the start.

For each Palio race, an artist is commissioned to create the banner (or what is called the palio). Most of the Sienese believe that the banner has clues as to who is destined to win the race.  Interestingly, this banner was in white, red, and green; Oca's (the Goose contrada) colors.

Here is one of the men in armor with his crossbow.

This is the tartuca (the turtle) horse.

Here is a man and horse from Chiocciola (the snail); it was their horse that died yesterday after the accident in the practice run. And though they walked in the parade, they did not throw flags. Around each of the flags, a black ribbon was tied.  The contrada mourned the loss of their horse- Messi.

The race was quick, only three laps around the piazza, and several of the horses lost their riders; in fact, two of the horses also fell to the ground-- though they were not seriously injured.  I found the video of the race online.  http://www.youtube.com/sienatv.  

Oca contrada did very well-- keeping ahead of the others for most of the race and winning by quite a few feet.  It was exciting to see their contradiola crying and weeping with joy, sweeping out onto the track to hoist the jockey onto their shoulders.

The streets were loud with the noise of the Oca celebrations! Their sounds echoed through the city as they carried the palio banner to each contrada to brag about their victorious showing at the race.  While they celebrated, my roommates and I had a few glasses of vino rosso while we discussed the day's events.

As a PS:

I was in the Onda contrada before the race and though they were not entered into the palio this time, their streets were decorated with pride. (Onda is "the wave")