Witness / Attend in August

The Palio di Siena is not a performance put on for tourists. It is a horse race that the citizens of Siena run for themselves, with a ferocity of local rivalry between the seventeen contrade (city districts) that has not diminished in 400 years. The race itself lasts 90 seconds around the Piazza del Campo, a three-lap bareback sprint on a dirt track laid over the medieval brick square. Jockeys can be bribed, horses can be bought, and alliances between contrade shift in the days before the race in a political maneuvering that is as much the point as the race itself. To watch it is to watch a city reveal something about itself that tourism usually obscures. The Piazza holds 30,000 standing spectators for free; the best windows and balconies surrounding it are rented to visitors.