so the past three days were the best days i spent in italy so far...on friday
was the italy game, and i watched it in a bar where there weren't any
americans...the italians were chanting and singing and clapping the whole
time, they were cracking jokes, making voices, just being silly...it
was great. when they scored, the entire place erupted...they lifted
us out of our chairs and ran around. it was great. one time, someone
knocked something over, and then soon after that this guy stood up
with blood all over his face. he cut himself somehow and had to
leave. they fed us cake with pineapple chunks and cookies and bought
us drinks. it was so much fun. best world cup experience i've ever
had...hope italy wins tomorrow cause that will be even crazier if they
do...the people at the bar invited us back to watch it with them
tomorrow and they are serving lasgna, so i bet that will be really
tasty.
yesterday i went to sienna for the palio, which is one of the craziest
things i ever experienced in my life. its a horse race around the
piazza, but the only rule is that the jockies can't interfere with
another jockey's reins...they can whip each other and the other
horses, they can beat each other up before the race, they can drug
each others horses, give them sedatives or something, its insane.
yesterday more jockies came off then stayed on, which is normal.
there is one turn that is lined with mattresses b/c people always
crash there. one horse came down and crushed the jockey...i think he
had to be carried off the track before the horses came around again.
the action leading up to the race is just as fun and intense as the
race is. most of the day the contradas, the fans of the different
neighborhoods of sienna i think, walk around the city. they have a
parade of flag throwers, drummers, chanters, knights all decked out,
and horses. sometimes the opposing contradas meet and riots break
out. i didn't see any of those, but i heard all sorts of things going
on all around. two hours before the race the parade on the track
starts. the bell tower starts chiming, once about every five seconds
for two hours, maybe even three hours. it sets the tone, and just
makes you get that much more excited.
the entire piazza is packed, and we had to claim our spot on the
railing 7 hours before the race. i heard that if you aren't on the
railing then you can't see. we almost got into two different fist
fights over it too. these people around us were being totally
unreasonable and tried to start something with us, but everyone else
around us was on our side, it wouldn't have been good for those
people if they tried something. i thought morai, my friend, was going
to pull out her marine moves though, and i was afraid we were going
to get arrested! it was funny, and this one little scrawny girl threatened
me and i just looked at her and laughed. people are freaks man!
after the race everyone storms the track, so we jumped the railing
with all the crazy fans and started running around, the horses were
still running around the track, so you had to watch out so you didn't
get trampled. people who were for the losing teams were sobbing, i
mean, you wouldn't thought someone died the way they were crying.
after a little while, after everything was cleaned up, they put
candles on top of some of the buildings lining the piazza. it was
beautiful. the winning family/neighborhood came back to the piazza
carrying their flags and beating their drums to have a party for the
rest of the night. so much fun!
