Kevin DuBois Travel and Photography: 2018 Italy Vacation, Day 6: Siena, Pre-Palio

After leaving San Gimignano, we drove south, back towards Sienna. We planned to attend the famous Palio horse race in the Piazza del Campo the next day and wanted to get some pre-Palio intel and logistics figured out. The day of the race it would be a madhouse!

Kathi navigated us to a parking lot and, after about a 30 minute wait, we found a spot at the Parcheggio San Francesco lot. A short walk up the street, there was an escalator that would carry us under or through the ancient city walls and deliver us into Sienna. In the escalator tunnel, much like a subway tunnel, the walls were plastered with all these decorative tiles which added a cool flare to an otherwise dingy cavern.

Emerging from the tunnel, we walked up a narrow passageway and emerged in the Piazza San Francesco. We made a quick visit inside the Basilica di San Francesco Catholic Church.

It was oddly empty but then we realized the pews had been removed to make way for the district's (called a "Contrada") Palio horse who would be blessed in the church before the race. The flags on the outside of the church show that it is located in the Giraffa Contrada.

Even though the church was empty, we still took time to light a candle and say a prayer.

We continued on through this secondary wall of building faces towards the heart of Sienna on the Via dei Rossi.

The flags and colors on the lampposts show that the street is the dividing line for two opposing Contradas: Giraffa on the left, Bruco on the right.

Continuing on towards the Piazza del Campo, we came across the Chiesa do San Cristoforo Catholic Church and ducked inside for a peek. Beautiful, oc course, and decorated with the flags of the Bruco Contrada district.

Even though the Palio was omnipresent, people on the street were still glued to the TV watching the World Cup soccer matches.

I shot video of the procession of one of the Contrada horses on the way to the district church for the blessing. The procession included the horse and its handler, the district's men, followed by the district's women, and finally the district's children - all cheering basically what sounded like their district's competition fight song.

The mounted Carabinieri, keeping the peace and getting ready for their role in the procession that's part of the Palio festivities.

We made it to the center of the massive Piazza del Campo where we joined our fellow revelers to watch some practice races and enjoy the pre-race festivities.

Here's a picture of the Piazza del Campo with just a hint of the 40,000 spectators that would be jammed into the infield to watch the horse race.

Kathi and I bought traditional Contrada scarfs designed with the district's flag and colors. As interlopers though, we chose our colors and cast our loyalties to the Contradas with the most attractive decoration to us. Kathi chose the "Onda" Contrada (a royally-crowned dolphin swimming of waves of the sea and I chose "Nicchio", one of Onda's allies, represented by a silver scallop shell on a blue crest between two branches of coral bound at the bottom by three true-love knots and one red and one silver rose.

Soil is trucked in to the Piazza del Campo and compacted to create the circular track for the horse race and then it's removed after and the Piazza is restored. This is done twice a year - once in July and once in August.

Kathi captured the horseshoe tracks in the soft soil....

We wanted to get on the road before it got dark, so we decided to leave Sienna and get close to home before getting dinner. We retrieved the car, and made our way to Asciano and parked outside of town next to a small stream (yes, Kevin looked to see if there were trout in it).

We wandered into Asciano and strolled up the Via Amos Cassioli on our way to La Mencia which was advertised as a local joint with a nice garden terrace.

I'm captivated by windows and doors...

I had pasta with meat sauce and olives. Kathi had gnocchi with vegetables and Parmesan and we coupled that with not one quarter but a half liter (!) of the house red and a bottle of sparkling water with gas. Delightful!