The city of Siena is world-famous for its bareback horse race, the Palio.
The race draws 40-thousand spectators, all packed into the Campo… Siena’s main piazza.
It’s been the setting for many a movie, including…a few years ago… the James Bond Film Quantum of Solace. A link to that movie scene is here: Quantun of Solace, Palio Scene.
Siena’s Palio is, however, much more than a setting for a horse race. It’s mostly an opportunity for the city’s neighborhoods …contradas…to build a sense of community and show their spirit..
The night before the horse race, each contrada hosts a neighborhood dinner. This one, in the Lumaca (Snail) contrada, was set up to feed one thousand people.
We were impressed.
Four hours before the dinners were scheduled to begin, flag and drum corps marched through the city, literally drumming up business.
The contrada we were visiting was the Oca..Goose …neighborhood.
The contrada got its name centuries ago, when intruders tried to sneak into the neighborhood, and the geese raised such a racket they woke up the residents who then sprang to their common defense.
The theme is built into every neighborhood institution. This mosaic is in the floor of the church of Santa Caterina, the patron saint of Siena
The church contains a museum of Palio victories.
This one the 1874 horse race.
…and the jockey’s silks from the 2013 win.
Not to be outdone, the Oca flag and drum corps paraded through town…
…followed by the horse who would race the next day…
…and a gaggle of pre-teens, all decked out in contrada flags and singing the neighborhood anthem.
At 9:30 pm, dinner finally began. Forty tables, all the size of this one.
160 neighboor teens served the meal and cleaned up afterwards.
How much pasta does it take to feed this many people?
In case you were wondering, this is what a dinner with 1600 guests looks like.
As the dignitaries entered, the crowd broke out in the contrada’s anthem, waving napkins as they sang.
At the head table, the contrada’s capitano and race jockey were feted to a standing ovation.
And while the inevitable speeches droned on, we made new friends…in this case a couple from Britain.
A five course meal with three different wines. We were punched out.
At about 1:00am, the festivities started to wind down. We made it back to Pienza at 3:00am, wondering how anybody from the contrada could make it to the horse race the next day.
At least, some of the participants didn’t take the festivities too seriously.
But note, the language on the tee shirt is not in Italian.
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