Il Palio

It's official - we're in the center of the craziest place in the world, or so it feels . . . the Palio events started yesterday, and oh, are they fun!

Yesterday was the Tratta, where they pair the horse to the jockey (who has been previously chosen by each competing Contrada - neighborhood). People sweat and stand in the sun in the Campo to watch this - men paired with good horses are yelling and cheering; men paired with weaker horses are crying and moping. Publicly. Seriously. But, as my teacher says, with the Palio, you never know who might be the winner. Sometimes the weakest or least experienced horse can win. Nicchio ("the Shell" Contrada) has, by far, the strongest horse, as shown at last night's test run - the first one - the Prima Prova. There's this grey horse (Il Griglio) which has been in the race before, too, which Selva ("the Forest") has, and the beast has some serious spirit to it. A few years ago, during one of the prove, he threw his rider and turned around and ran the wrong way around the track. Ah, the fun of the Palio!

Our group missed the Tratta yesterday, because we got to enjoy our pizza-making class (gift of SPI to our group) at the cooking school, which is located in the bottom floor of our school. Normally, they have classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, where DA students can attend to help make food. They opened the kitchen specially for us for yesterday's lunch time. We made some fabulous stuff, even if I say so. Luke and Stephen both admitted that they'll want to make bruschetta al pomodoro again, Trevor enjoyed the bruschetta al' formaggio (on which we could put anchovies, too - YUM), all the boys enjoyed the pizza with prosciutto and salami, Brenna and Becky devoured the pizza ai funghi, and I watched Ian inhale his tiramisu. We are all cooking MASTERS now!

Today, there are two more Prove - one this morning, while we're in class, and another this evening. But you can find things happening throughout the town intermittently - I just passed a large group of women, all from the same contrada (you know because they all are wearing their contrada's scarf around their necks), strolling through town and singing songs. All of the contrada members join together to improve the spirit in favor of their horse. During this time, it's not uncommon for married couples to move back in with their families, if they're from different contradas, and even best friends, if from different contradas, will have nothing to do with each other during this time. It's all madness to me . . .

Today, after class, we did some touring as a group. This year is a big celebration year of the beginning of the Rinascimento (Italian Renaissance), so Siena offers tickets to places for SUPER cheap (plus discounts to students). We toured the Museum of the works of the Duomo, and tomorrow, we'll be visiting the Duomo, herself. Be sure to ask your kiddo to see some of their pictures off the Facciatone (what, I think, is the best view in Siena, even though my husband thinks the Torre del Mangia is better - next week we go there). Tomorrow, we have class, and then we will head to visit the Duomo with the same ticket which I bought for them today (again, thanks to SPI)! Then, on Friday, PALIO!!!!!

pace,
Laura ;)