It was two years ago… it was already several years I lived in the Siena territory, but I was not yet gone at the Patio in Siena! I know, it is a little bit strange …but I am strange

Moreover the Palio is every year on july 2 and august 16 and in july and august in Tuscany is hot.. very hot.. and I hate hot temperatures! Mainly for this reason I wasn’t yet gone at the Patio, I imagined all that people packed like sardines and I didn’t want to be one of them.

But one day, a friend of mine from Swizerland asked me to bring her and another friend to the Patio and for this reason I finally decided to go.

We lived home in San Giusto (Murlo) around 12.oo a.m. and arrived in the early afternoon.

We saw the blessing of the horse at church, then we walked around without a goal (it is very funny to look around when all the people around you seems just like crazy! you can’t imagine how the siennese people feel this day.. ), then we were simply pushed into the Piazza del Campo (the wonderful main square of Siena).

We waited for a longtime, one close to the other, pushed, shoved, harassed by all that people… but then it was suddenly silence ..and the show began!

It is nothing and it is all, I mean the show means waiting sometimes for hours that some horses begin the race all around the square, but they don’t, they quarrel and fight, the jokeys speak and plot one with the other, and you are there waiting for the show..

the evening is arriving, the light is no more so brilliant, the hot is no more so unbearable, the square colours of pink ..the people suddenly shuts.. and the show begin.

It is few minutes (seconds?) but you won’t never feel something like that in your whole life.

Thousands of people will turn together to look at the race (a real spectacular scene!), a few seconds more.. than it will be all finished and will begin a happyness you won’t understand..:-) and will be party all around you, with people laughing, other crying, many parades, a show in Dome for the winner… and will be a great occasion for sitting in a café on the square.. and drink an “aperitivo” while it’s becoming dark and all the lights around you will turn on.