“Palio is the name given in Italy to an annual athletic contest, very often of a historical character, pitting the neighborhoods of a town or the hamlets of a comune against one another. Typically they are fought in costume and commemorate some event or tradition of the Middle Ages and thus involve horse racing, archery, jousting, crossbow shooting, and similar medieval sports. ” -Wikipedia
We learned about the palio which was to be held the weekend of our visit to Trevi when we arrived and Friday night rehearsals took place, with lots of folk music and drumming, so we were able to hear a preview of coming attractions Trevi is a small hillside hamlet and, as we were at the top of the hill, we could hear the sounds coming from 2-3 blocks down the hill from our room.
The parade is the first event that takes place, Saturday night, and then the race itself is held on Sunday, during the day. We were scheduled to be gone most of Sunday but we would be able to see the parade on Saturday. The stands and flags were put up Saturday while we were gone on our day trip, but we saw them when we returned.
We had a nice dinner at a local restaurant on the upper piazza and Alice got tickets for us to view the palio. There were two sets of tickets, to the upper piazza and the lower piazza. The upper piazza seats were sold out but Alice got us seats to the lower piazza. The people at Overseas Adventure Travel actually paid for our tickets, which was a nice gesture.
There are three groups competing against each other in this palio and the families and shields of each group, which are called contrada in Siena, are brought out in their medieval costumes to display their families and the young men who will actually be participating in the race. The parade was scheduled to begin at 9:00 but ran a little late. The weather was still balmy so we weren’t cold.
Unfortunately, the parade took place in the dark, so we weren’t able to see their costumes very well. There was a big screen TV set up so we could see them arriving in the upper piazza, with lights, but after an hour we decided to call it a night. We’d had a busy day!
The race the next day was to be an ancient chariot race. I will include a photo of the vehicle here with some of the people in costumes we saw in the streets. These pictures were downloaded from the internet.
We weren’t able to walk directly up the hill because that was the parade route, so Alice led us around the village following the ancient walls. The village was packed with people. It was THE event of the season!
Palios are held throughout Italy in the summer and fall to pay homage to the medieval roots of the citizenry. The biggest one is in Siena July 2 and August 16, and we saw the parade for the palio in Parma September 17.
As a traveler, it’s fun to be able to see and enjoy these local events, which are part of the culture of the country.