Yesterday was a nice, relaxing day to recoup from the weekend and prepare for the craziness of the Palio (this Friday, July 2). I caught up on homework, wrote emails, sent postcards, went for a run around the Fortezza, and had a nice, leisurely lunch with Ana Rose. We went to Café Alfieri, one of my favorite lunch spots in Siena. We sat outside in their garden, in the shade. That evening we enjoyed time with Stella hearing about all of the Palio events taking place this week. She made us her delicious chickpea soup again and then wanted to have an American meal, so she made hamburgers, “Tuscano style” as she called it – veal and pork burgers with olive oil and sautéed onions and garlic. To accompany it, we had a chilled vegetable salad and dulce anguria (sweet watermelon) for dessert.
Now onto Tuesday… Today in class during our coffee break, Elena, Marco, and I saw a contrada parade pass by. It was for Chiocciola (the snail contrada), and hundreds of men, teenage boys, and young boys (girls are not allowed in the parade) were dressed in medieval velvet costumes the colors of the snail contrada: red and yellow. There were drummers playing a march beat and boys waving and throwing flags in the air. Other members of the contrada walked behind the parade, cheering as they marched to the Piazza del Campo. The parade took about 15 minutes to pass by and held up all traffic. Because of the excitement, our class was delayed, and when we did return to class, we spent the next 10 minutes listening to Marco talk about the Palio in Italian. Therefore, we did not have time to take our test today, and instead Marco made it a take-home test. After class, the streets were filled with people… it was hard to walk because people were scattered everywhere – tourists, Sienese locals, other Italians, etc! Most were wearing satin scarves around their necks with the colors and symbols of their contrada. At 12:30, “La Tratta” took place, which is a key moment in the four days leading up to the race. The contradas participating in the Palio are assigned a horse based on a lottery drawing. The Piazza del Campo was filled when I went to see the Tratta. It had to have been over 100 degrees in the piazza too! Although I did not know much of what was going on, the excitement in the air was tangible. After the horses were assigned, they were led out of the Palio and each contrada started cheering, chanting, and singing as their horse was escorted out. The talk is that nicchio (the clam) has the best jockey and one of the best horses, along with selva (forest/rhino with a tree on its back). For the remainder of the four days until the Palio, each contrada has 24 hour watch over their horse, to ensure that no foul play is occurring. Also, on TV is 96 Hours of Palio – live coverage of the Piazza del Campo, the parades, the horses, anything Palio related 24/7. It’s hard to be motivated to study when so much hype is occurring constantly outside my window! About every 10 minutes in class, another set of drums or trumpets could be heard going off!
At 3pm, our Art and Architecture class met outside the Cathedral (Duomo) for our tour with PG. We spent two hours touring the cathedral, and I loved learning the history behind it and seeing all of the famous art pieces. Some key points of interest include that the cathedral there today is truly the third version of the cathedral (the very first one was a Temple of Minerva). The roots to pagan times can be seen all throughout the Cathedral. For instance, the entire floor is marble inlay depicting a series of stories. (We were very fortunate because the tiles are normally covered, but for the Palio they were uncovered.) The far right of the nave has large tiles picturing a series of Sibyls, a mythological prophet. As you progress around the cathedral, the tiles depict Old Testament stories then New Testament stories at the front. Since the only original light came from the huge, circular stained glass window at the front of the cathedral, the pagan tiles would have been in the dark, the Old Testament ones in half dark, half light, and the New Testament ones in full light. This progression represented human history until the illumination of Christ. Also interesting is that among the floor tiles are mosaics representing the political power of Siena (since art, the church, and politics are always intertwined) and extolling wisdom. For instance, one tile shows the Virgin Mary as Minerva (the foundations of the original Cathedral), who is the goddess of wisdom. Therefore, philosophy, not Christian ideas, is celebrated. These same themes are echoed in the pulpit created by Nicola Pisano in 1269. The base of the pulpit, which is the darkest part, shows medieval symbols of lions and eight women representing the liberal arts and philosophy. The arches contain statues of Jewish prophets, or the Old Testament, and get partial light. Finally, the top which is the best lit and where the homily is given, contains a relief of the New Testament stories. The last interesting tidbit of information is that Michelangelo carved four statues in the Cathedral and was influenced by the floor and the Holy Water basin, by Antonio Federighi. These influences can be seen in him including Sibyls (on the Cathedral’s floor) in the Sistine Chapel and carving slave statues, which are in the Louvre now, (on the Holy Water basin).
After class, Ana Rose and I went with Stella to see the Drago parade progress to the Piazza for the first Le Prove, a trial run for the 10 horses racing. As I mentioned before, Drago is one of the ten contradas racing this time, so the energy was electrifying at the Drago center, where the horse’s stall is. Everyone was dressed in green, purplish red, and yellow (Drago’s colors) except for Ana Rose and I because we didn’t know we would be going until we got home this evening. Everyone was singing the Drago songs, celebrating how Drago is the best contrada and how they are going to win the Palio. One of the lines of the song Stella translated for us as, “Our strength is in our arms, the Dragon in our heart!” People of all ages were there, and we started the procession to the Piazza around 6:30. Along the way, we ran into some other contradas, which started a chanting match. Interestingly, each contrada uses the same tune for their songs, and only the words change. Once we arrived at the Piazza we went to the center and watched the ceremonies begin. First every contrada filed in, with the men of the contradas sitting in the bleachers, the children lined up in one section, and the rest of us in the middle. I couldn’t believe how many people were there just to see the first of five trial runs! The Piazza was packed, so I can’t imagine what it will be like for the real Palio on Friday! While we waited for the police to clear everyone from the track circling the inside of the Piazza, you could hear rival contradas shouting songs back and forth at each other. Then, a gun is fired (which scared me very badly!) and the horses begin circling until they are assigned a spot on the starting line. There is only enough room for nine horses in a row, so one is held back. But this is an advantage during the actual Palio race because this horse starts racing first and when it reaches the actual start line, then the gun is shot for the other horses to begin. Next, the Prove (trial) began, and the horses with their jockeys began circling the Piazza. The trials are not competitive; they are simply for the horse to get a feel for the layout because the Palio race is very dangerous. They circle the Piazza three times, and each circle around contains two 90-degree turns. After one of the turns the path slopes downward and narrows, making it very dangerous! Oftentimes jockeys get thrown off the horse and end up in the hospital. We saw the horses race by, but they did not go full-force. Afterwards, the horses are led out, and right in front of us a fistfight broke out between two rivals, leocorno (unicorn) and civetta (owl). Although they are small contradas, they are very feisty and fight every year!
When we got home around 8:30pm, Stella finished dinner and we ate while watching the reruns on the 96 Hours before the Palio channel and guess what…. They showed a clip of Drago marching to the Piazza and showed Ana Rose, Stella, and I walking in the procession! The clip was at least 10 seconds long, probably because we were right in front of all the bambini (children)! All three of us started cheering when we saw us on TV! For dinner, Stella prepared the handmade pasta that I’d made in cooking class with her yummy tomato sauce. Then we had frittata with sautéed potatoes, zucchini, and onions inside. The salad she made is a classic Sicilian dish (where she’s from) that contains oranges, olives, and onions all tossed in olive oil, oregano, and fennel – an interesting mix of sweet and salty. Then we finally had to start our homework although festivities will continue all night!
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