This past week seems to have flown by! Work has kept me busy (but in a good way) but I also managed to have some fun as well. Wednesday evening we had a concert of classical music in the courtyard of our residence. The performers were all students at the Chiggiana Academy of Music, a prestigious school that brings students from around the world to Siena. The musicians who performed were from Italy, Japan, Mexico, Austria, and Germany, and they were excellent. The string quartet which closed the concert with a concerto by Ravel was exceptional. Then, on Thursday night, I went to the Orto dei Tolomei where they host outdoor movie screenings in their gardens several times a week. We were expecting to see Coraline, but we had read the schedule incorrectly and saw Frozen River instead. I was pleased that I understood a good deal of the dialogue (the movie was dubbed in Italian) and it was interesting to watch a movie about people struggling in contemporary America in the idyllic setting of an Italian garden. Friday night I rounded off the week with a jazz concert. The music was great and several of the performers were extremely talented, including a 15 year old pianist who blew me away. After three nights out in a row I was pretty exhausted so I took Saturday off and did some more mundane things like laundry and grocery shopping. I was also able to get a full night of sleep- my first since arriving here! It helped that most of the students were off travelling for the weekend, meaning that there was less noise in the residence and fewer people for me to worry about.

It is a good thing I got some rest this weekend, because today the madness that is the Palio began. The actual race in next Sunday, August 16, but for the next week there will be numerous parades, processions, parties, and events all leading up to the race itself. Only 10 out of the 17 contrade participate in each race, and those that do hold parades and processions throughout their neighborhoods and the city. I have included a few pictures and a short video clip of one of the processions that happened today (this one is the Nicchio contrada) below. It is important to understand that the Palio is not just a tradition for the Sienese, it is part of who they are, and it is taken very seriously. Thus all the events around and leading up to the Palio are more than just an excuse to get together and have fun (although they do provide that) but they also help to create the unique sense of community and identity of the Sienese. It is part of why I love Siena!

*Look for more updates, pictures, and info on the Palio as the week progresses!

The Nicchio procession begins!

This is the fountain of the Tartuca contrada. Each contrada has its own fountain, most with the symbol of the contrada (in this case, a tortise). I walk past this one on the way to the office every day and fill my water bottle up (yes, the water is safe to drink!).

A close up of the fountain so you can see the tortoise. If you look closely you can also see a little snail underneath the tortoise, maybe representing the contrada I live in: chiocciola. Chiocciola and Tartuca are neighbors and Palio enemies, as you will see in the next few photos!

Almost every contrada has lightposts on the street with the colors and symbol of the contrada, so the style of the lights changes all over town. This is a Tartuca streetlight - see the little turlte on the post? (Sorry about the poor quailty of the photo- the lighting was bad that afternoon!)

This is a sign posted on the Tartuca community message board next to their fountain, clearly making fun of their enemy, Chiocciola. (Although I'm not sure if they are say that Chiocciola is like a horse or it the horse is supposed to be laughing at Chiocciola . . .)

In retaliation, Chiocciola has given insults of their own. On the border between the two neighborhoods they have spray painted an insult to Tartuca. It is a bit hard to read but it says "52 1/2 Pifferi." The 52 and 1/2 is how many times Tartuca has won the Palio (they tied with someone for the 1/2) and Pifferi, although it literally means "penny-whistle" is actually an insult. See? I told you they take this stuff seriously!