Entering a Contrada in old Siena

Ciao!

Yesterday I had a field trip to Siena with my Contemporary Italy: Culture and Society class.  Siena is about an hour and a half from Perugia and it is located in the region of Tuscany.   Siena has a population of about 50,000 and it is a major tourist location.

I really had no idea why we were going to Siena until my class last Wednesday.  My professor explained to us that the Sienese people are still living in the Middle Ages (sort of).  Siena is divided into 17 contrada's.  There is really no English word for contrada but the best way to describe it is a neighborhood of about 3,000 people.  The people of these neighborhoods are very proud of the contrada they come from.  Out tour guide (who is a Native Sienese woman) told us that your contrada comes first, then your family.  You do not get to choose your contrada, it is wherever your parents lived before they had you.  And what is very interesting is parents can be of a different contrada than their children and brothers and sisters may even be different from one another. 

The pride of each contrada can be seen twice a year on July 2nd and August 16th.  These are the days of the "Il Palio".  The Palio is a famous horse race dating back to the year 1260.  There are 10 horses that race around the main piazza in Siena and whatever contrada wins gets bragging rights for a whole year and a nice silk banner.  There is only a first place winner, the second horse to finish is the first loser.  And these races are taken very very seriously by the Sienese people.  About 45,000 people are in the piazza on the day of the race.  Each contrada is represented once a year (twice if you are lucky enough to win a lottery and make it to the August 16th Palio).  I have put a link below to a Youtube clip that our professor showed us in class before we went to Siena.  This clip pretty much says it all....take a look!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM0YqFJrypk

After hearing about the pride each contrada has for itself I was so excited to visit Siena.  When we arrived, we took a tour of the town including the famous Piazza Il Campo (where the Palio horse race is held).  It was such a beautiful day that it made our field trip that much more enjoyable.

 

After a tour of Siena and a wonderful lunch we headed to meet our tour guide, Nicoletta who was going to take us to a contrada.  After our learning in class I just assumed that anyone could go into a contrada but this is definitely not the case.  Only the members of that contrada can go into it.  Our class had special permission to enter this particular contrada because the tour guide was friends with one of the members and she is native to Siena as well.

We entered the contrada and went to their museum.  Here we saw all of the contrada Palio banners they had ever won, one of the banners even dated back to 1736, pretty incredible.  We then watched a video of their last Palio victory and had a tour of their church.  Each contrada has their own church and each member is baptized into their own contrada.  It was so interesting to see an actual contrada because most people do not get the chance to ever do this.  I felt like we had entered a secret society (you know about this dad, haha!). 

Two of the banners from the Palio race (these are floor to ceiling)....

 The church of this contrada (notice the contrada flags hanging around the altar)....

 After our visit and tour we left the contrada and enjoy some free time to explore Siena.  A group of us went to get some almond cookies that are native to Siena.  They were absolutely delicious!  I bought a couple cookies and I am going to eat them sparingly because they are so good!  We also went to get some gelato (of course!) and we saw the most beautiful sight....gelato with real fruit in it!!

 

I had one scoop of pineapple and one scoop of strawberry and it was amazing!  The real fruit was right in the gelato and it was so fresh!  

After walking off our gelato we headed to our bus and came back to Perugia about 7:30 pm.  It was a long day but we all had a really great time!  I am so happy we had the once in a lifetime chance of actually visiting a contrada, it is something I will never forget.

Now I am back in Perugia and preparing for my week of classes.  I have my Italian midterm this Thursday and my three other midterms are the following week.  I cannot believe it is time for midterms already, time is surely flying away from me and I am not sure how I feel about this.  I don't think I will ever be ready to leave this beautiful place!  I am trying to enjoy every moment and every day I am here :) 

Perugia is also preparing for something big....EUROCHOCOLATE!!  This is an annual festival held every October for ten days!  Lots of chocolate companies are represented and there are chocolate festivities held all ten days including chocolate carvings and free samples.  Needless to say I am one happy camper right now because yesterday they starting setting up for it.  There are tents being set up in the piazza and you can tell something big is coming our way.  The festival runs from October 15-24.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!  I miss you all so much!!

Italian words of the post (my gelato flavors):

    fragola - strawberry

    ananas - pineapple

Morgan :)

P.S. GO PHILLIES!!!!  Even though I can't watch the games (I do watch the highights the next day) I am still rooting all the way from Italy!!  Beat those Reds tonight!!!!