Thursday/Rāpare
More learning about the Palio.
Fiorenza told us of a good Facebook website with videos in English for this year's Palio - place2b siena paliolive# - so we watched those for a while. This one below is from Bill though. Each day there is so much chanting in the streets, as each contrade takes their horse to and from the trial, with their horse at the front and then they all follow. chanting. This is Caterpillar/Bruco contrade. They are chanting things like "We will be victorious, we are strong, we will win." (And also "The [insert enemy] are [insert profanity]." Ed.)
The Goose/Oca dinner preparations for tonight are underway, which we are attending. Some children were playing with balls as games for the race (10 of them in different colours, each representing a different contrade) and the track. They were putting the balls two at a time in the top, and then seeing which one would race to the bottom first. The boy at the bottom here preparing the track.
I photographed these in a shop window. This is the same game - you can play indoors or outdoors.
More wandering. A coffee in Bar Fusari in the Forest contrade - we ended up coming here a number of times. We found a newspaper and a St Anna water bottle (for our Anna).
We came across Goose's horse on a bit of grass in their contrade, with the barbaresco - the minder who is with the horse 24 hours a day for the four days that they have it, to make sure the other contrade don't mess with it. (It has happened apparently!) This must be the only piece of grass this size within the walls of Siena. Will it make the difference?
This is the dinner we are going to today - colour is now on the table. There will be 1300 people (there are a lot more tables behind the building in front) and we will all be served a four course meal.
Then we went to practice round number five, and this time we were in an apartment up high directly above the starting line. It was a spectacular view. Eagle won, and as I said no one really cares - it is the winner of the Palio tomorrow that counts.
Below are some shots from way up high - and yes, this is the crowd just for the trial.
Here is the starting mechanism. This is attached to two big ropes with a space in between for nine of the horses, then the tenth horse is drawn at the back of the two ropes. When this horse chooses to go into the space between, the race starts. So he decides the start, not the starter.
Below is a photo and a video from our window of the start. The video is a minute long but it shows how Onda (blue and white ) and Oca (Green, white and red), the two enemies of Tower (purple), are trying to upset him, and stop the horse from starting with the others. The photo same. We are getting a taste of what tomorrow will be like - and this is not the real thing!
And in the video, you can see how when they do eventually get lined up, the fantini are all looking behind to see when the 10th horse is going to come into the space to start the race.
Every contrade in the race (and maybe some of the others) has an open air dinner the night before to celebrate. We got tickets to the Oca/Goose dinner. (It is free for the contrade members - not for us . . . It is estimated that at this moment of time when we are having the dinner 25,000 others around Siena in their contrada are doing the same.) We sat with Fiorenza and some other English speaking people who had also got their tickets through Stan (https://www.paliotours.com/ if you want to go!)
This is the passionate, eloquent, and knowledgeable Fiorenza. She has a website called Go with Flo! https://www.gowithflotuscany.com We highly recommend her for anything you want to do in Tuscany. Her goal is to give you a once in a life time experience, don't worry, smile and #GoWithFlo!
And we had lovely conversations with Rebecca, Bryant and Katarina. Rebecca owns, rides and jumps horses horses on their farm near Poughkeepsie in upstate New York, and Katarina is an anaesthetist from Stockholm.
And all of us.
But the main thing was the dinner. There was singing all through the night, and speeches. We left at 12.30, dessert was still to come!
Here is the contrade singing "We are united together and we can do this." (Or something like that.) The contrade is more than community - it is family/whanau. These people do everything together and are brothers and sisters in arms.
Fiorenza interpreted the speeches by the Captain, and Governor of Oca, for us. They say the same thing - honouring Goose, those that have come before, being warrior like, not needing others, we want to weave like a warrior Amsicora (the jockey), see it like a drone and then make it all happen, that is our goal etc.
Fiorenza also adds: "Ideally Goose want their enemy, Tower, to come second ("first loser", the worst position to be) and them to come first. But they know they do not have the best horse so winning is unlikely, and so stopping Tower is the big thing this race. Panther and Caterpillar will help Tower. Goose will promise money to others to stop Tower winning. It is complicated! Goose can be able to cheer twice - once if they assist another contrade to win, and two, if their enemy doesn't win. The rivalry is passed on through the generations, and is from a border dispute or it may have been an unjust murder centuries ago.
