More Palio, and more Controversy...

 We have of course had the Palio dell'Assunta, which according to time honoured tradition is run on the 16th of July. But there now seems to be a new development, which means that virtually every recent Palio has been postponed because of rain... 

So, yes, it happened again, and it was run not just one day later, but two, so it eventually happened on the 18th of August. Interestingly, we had not seen a drop of rain since the last Palio.

And here it is: the actual Palio, the painted silk flag that is won by the victorious Contrada. It is painted by the Romanian artist Teodora Axente, and has caused a storm of controversy with the conservative Sienese, who always complain about every Palio which is unveiled about a week before the Palio is run. So a bit of grumbling is more or less expected. However, this time it caused such a rumpus that the Maire had to give a press conference about it, where she defended her choice of the artist, on the point of tears. 

The main complaints are that the face of the Madonna (which always have to feature)  is seen as being too strong, and 'masculine'. But that is just the beginning... there are gnashings of teeth and murmurs of 'sacrilege' and blasphemy, for reasons I cannot fathom very clearly, but it has got to the point of getting an archbishop involved in the fray as well and people writing learned articles about the traditions that should be adhered to, as well as others who maintain that artistic freedom should be sacrosanct as well... It has been most entertaining. 

I think the beleaguered artist is really very good, technically superb, with a strange surreal and sometimes disturbing vision. 

The other big controversy - and frankly one that does need sorting out- is the way the race was run this time. It was once more Tittia who won his 13th victory on the horse Anda e Bola for Nicchio, this time also a contrada that had not won the Palio for more than 20 years.

 But this time is was really too obvious that he was the one who decided when the race started, and not the 'run-in'  jockey. Even I, who have  never been part of  this anti Tittia sentiment,  have to say that I am disappointed with the powers that decide what is and is not allowed...

Anyway, the August Palio is over, and with that comes the nostalgic feeling that the summer is over...

The Guest of the Month of August will be the verry nice photographer  Gianni from Le Marche on the Adriatic side of Italy, who came to stay here for Palio, and here we are at the Cena Della Prova Generale:

Gianni is the great nephew of  a famous jockey, MEZZETO, who rode many Palios here in Siena and who won both the July and August Palio in 1956. There is a You Tube documentary about him. He rode for Onda too, but did not win for us. But all the old people had heard of him and  were excited to meet his great nephew. I think he felt welcome. A lovely evening this time, it only started raining the following day...