Friday/Rāmere
There is a final trial early in the morning (the sixth trial) - the Sienese call it 'the bad trial' because every fantini wants to look after their horse for the race later in the day, so they go very slowly.
Then early in the afternoon all horses go to get blessed in their contrade chapels or outside it. (This depends whether the chapel has steps to it or not.) The jockey/fantini attends a blessing ceremony for himself and his horse, where the contrade priest presses a golden figure between the horse's eyes as he recites a prayer. We went to see Oca's horse blessed. (This photo is from the internet from another year, we didn't get very close.)
Lots of people around Siena look nervous as we wander around, and we saw that nervousness at the blessing too. Each contrade then marches to the Duomo and the Archbishop of Siena blesses the contrada. The people holding the flags are called ensigns. To be an ensign is a privilege and requires a lot of training.
The routine with two ensigns is the same for every contrade, and takes a few minutes. All the contrade ensigns do this routine in front of the Archbishop at the Duomo and then four times in the procession in the Piazzo Del Campo before the Palio.
Here is the end of the Tower ensigns performing the "flag dance." The big throw is right at the end.
This video below was the only time we saw a flag dropped by any ensigns the whole day. (It was also the only one Bill videoed - it was Oca's.) This is the end of of the flag dance.
Some other photos before the Palio.
Where we are sitting (we took this photo the morning before the race.) See the blue and green tarpaulins on the lower seats. Look at the orange tarpaulin above. That is us. These were fantastic seats because we were looking directly at the start/finish line - it's just a little to the left of this photo.
Our tickets.
In our seats waiting for the parade start.
From Wikipedia: "The Corteo Storico is a historical costume parade has always occurred before the Palio since the race’s inception. It is a formally choreographed triumphal march that commemorates the ancient institutions, customs and greatness of the Republic of Siena. Special attention is given to the Contrade whose participants form the main part of the parade. The parade takes place in the Piazza del Campo with 14 groups and a total of almost seven hundred participants. The procession enters the Piazza del Campo on the first toll of the bell (the "Sunto") on the Torre del Mangia. (By the way this bell is one of the few times this is rung.) Ten pairs of Ensigns stop at the various points in the Piazza and in synchrony with the drum roll perform a spectacular flag-waving exhibition culminating with the throwing of the flag at the end. The Palio is hoisted on to the judges stand while the ten flag-bearers perform their own drum roll."
It goes for about two hours!
The carabinieri/police start the parade off. They are always permitted to carry their assigned weapon as personal equipment (Beretta 92FS pistols) on horses. Here they are charging with their bayonets.
Then the parade follows.
This is a 20sec panorama during the parade.
This is the War Chariot. It represents the symbol of the independence and unity of the people in Siena.
The palio! The winning contrade gets this. It is painted by a different (famous) painter each year.
Then it is put in this place opposite the finish line, until the winning contrade claim it after the race.
All the contrada march. Each starts with the ensigns, followed by their horse with fantini - below is Selva/Forest, and then their horse, Remorex, led by the barbaresco. (This horse won for the Giraffe contrade last year - riderless! The jockey had fallen off!)
The fantini is in costume on another horse - this is the Selva fantini, Tittia. He is the upcoming new champion jockey - he has won 6 palio.
These pages indicate the end of the procession. They carry a laurel to mark the separation between the ten contrade in the race and the seven who are not.
At 7 o'clock there is a big boom and the horses and fantini come out. After all the noise, there is then complete silence for 60 seconds when the starter/mossiere announces the draw.
And then just like that, the horses walk into the draw for the start.
But the race didn't start till 40 minutes later!
Bill thought this was the most interesting part of the whole thing. He says: "Between the announcement of the draw just after 7 o'clock and the actual start, the fantini do deals with each other (with the contrade's money) to help each other (or hurt others) during the race. For our race, Oca/Goose got a terrible draw - 9, right on the outside. Tower got a great draw - 3, and more importantly, and badly for Oca, they were a long way apart. So what did Oca do? When it was his turn to come into the barrier 9, he just went instead straight to where Tower was in 3, and set about seriously rustling him up! Eventually, the riders decide they're not going to get started this time, so they go out of the barrier, do some more deals, and try again. And then the same thing happens - again and again for 40 minutes! Here's a couple of minutes that were typical - Oca is the green and white on the right hand side at the beginning, Tower is the purple."
"Why doesn't the starter do something about it? Because it's allowed and "within the game".
And the race can't start until the 10th horse (the red and blue Pantera at the back) comes into the barrier. And if you look at him in the video, he's not looking interested in coming in. Why might that be? I think the Oca jockey's money might be a big factor in that."
Finally the race did start! See the 10th horse at the back charge into the barrier. In my opinion this jostling would tire the horses. Remorex was not in argy bargies as it was drawn middle, and has no enemies. The Palio is less than 90 seconds, but "lasts all year". Here it is with the Italian commentary.
A photo finish.
I think the riderless horse wins . Bill thinks Caterpillar who has not won for 27 years has won. In a confused minute we see that the riderless horse has won. It is Remorex, who won riderless last year too! This happens very rarely, but now the same horse has done it twice in two years! The Selva/Forest contrade go berserk. There are tears and excitement just like our prep videos say.
Bill gets quite heated about Istrice‘s jockey. He drew one but didn't start in that position, and missed the start. (We heard later the Istrice contrade got very angry with the jockey.)
I think that horse Remorex is legendary. It won in July with outits rider and it has won again. Caterpillar's jockey tried to whip it at the finish with his nerbo (whip), He thought he had won and then Remorex snuck up on the outside. This horse is intelligent and knows what is going on. Remorex has won the Palio three times, twice riderless.
And Tower and Oca? Bill says: "Tower got away 5th or 6th at the start, and stayed there for the first lap. Then on the second lap, he slipped badly going around a turn (you can just see it on the video), and was out of the race. Oca started last and finished last. He had run his race before the canape (starting rope) dropped. He had done his job very well - there would have been great celebrations in the Oca camp."
After the race we go back to the restaurant to catch up with the others. What a race! What a build up, there was a lot we learnt. And so much more to learn about this extraordinary race.
Ko au te Palio , Ko te Palio ko au.
From left to right - Bryant, Bill, Rebecca, me, Karen directly behind me and Katarina. Nice to make new friends, and we chatted about the Palio and life. Rebecca and Bryant (NY State), Karen (Florida, though now a pilgrim working everywhere - check her out online - Karen Rauch Carter, best selling feng shui author), and Katarina from Sweden.
We go to bed and hear the drumming of the Selva celebrations as we go to sleep.