Every year on July 2 and August 15, the beautiful medieval city comes alive for the breathtaking festival, Il Palio. The event, first held in 1238 school writing paper is know worldwide as a totally unique horse race but is much, much more. The 17 Contradae (wards) of Siena compete for the honor of winning. It is a great honor for the jockey to wear the colors of his contrada but it is the horse that is the hero as unlike most races a riderless horse may win the race.
The race is run around the Piazza del Compo and lasts only around 75 seconds. In the morning each horse is led into the contrada church to be blessed. After this solemn event the city erupts with as many as 50,000 people filing into the middle of the square while some lucky others take places on bleachers in front of the 15th century palazzi.
After the race each contrada sets out dinner with local restaurateurs serving huge bowls of pasta, gigantic platters of meats and legendary sides of vegetables. It is a fabulous site with hundreds of torches or lanterns and groups of the contradae eating together.
Reservations for seats at the Il Palio should be made well in advance but are well worth the effort.
Those who fill the infield are unable to leave the square from early morning until after the race is run. Sienna is roughly a 1½ hour drive from the villas – a wonderful day trip anytime regardless of the day or time of year. Tickets for July 2, 2008 are sold out and those wishing to purchase August tickets should do so ASAP.