Montagnana Medieval Fest and Palio

Last year, on the weekend of my birthday I went to the historic Venice Regatta with a mixed group of new and old friends. We wandered around the city and then staked out prime real estate on one of the canals to watch the gondola races. My friends surprised me with a little fruit tart to celebrate, and they even remembered to bring/light a candle and sang to me! I was really touched.

This year was just as nice. The actual day of my birthday, I went to a friend's house and made a pot of jambalaya. If you know me,  you know that is probably my number one comfort food. Cooking it and eating it and sharing it with friends are all pretty much guaranteed to make me happy. I walked in to find a "Happy Birthday" banner, and for dessert they treated me to a delicious strawberry mousse dessert with balls of white chocolate on top to decorate. Heh, balls. I tell you, Italians have cornered the market on coffee and desserts: the coffee is dark and delicious and the desserts aren't tooth-cloyingly sweet. We played a few games and drank a fair amount of wine, and it was the perfect low-key evening.

The next day, a Sunday, I met one of my old friends (who I considered a new friend last year) and another new friend, and we carpooled to the beautiful city of Montagnana to experience its medieval market, parade, and palio. The definition of "il palio" is a banner or cloth awarded to the winner of a certain competition. However, over time the term has been associated so strongly with traditional horse races that in common usage, Palio will generally be used to refer to the race itself. If you've seen the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" (with Daniel Craig, who is my favorite Bond) then you might remember the opening scene which featured a horse race in Siena. That is the holy grail of Palios and is uber expensive even for horrible standing-room-only space. The horses and their bareback riders, proudly representing their neighborhoods, race around the main town square with crowds on either side, and they make hairpin turns and it's all very exciting and intense. 

Instead of forking out the big bucks to stand outside all day and fight crowds for smelly port-a-potties, we decided to experience what I call "Palio Light." I'd never been to Montagnana, but when we heard they had an entire medieval festival featuring a palio, we decided to make it happen. I understand ten communities participate in this palio every year, and I believe Montagnana always plays host, probably because they have such a fantastic venue. Montagnana is only about 45 minutes away, and it's another gem of a city. It has a very well-preserved wall and castle that you can't miss when driving into the town, and seemed very clean. When I first heard we would be moving to Italy, that's the kind of town I envisioned, and it did not disappoint. Well, other than signage. We easily found a parking spot but there were no signs toward the parade or palio. We did ask someone and got the scoop, and as it turns out it was pretty obvious in the end so we didn't need signs after all. Still, it would have been nice to eliminate some of the uncertainty from the get-go.

Once you enter the historic part of the town, there's a small square but you're basically forced onto streets which all lead to the main plaza in front of (surprise) a large church. There were vendors lining the square, and there were a bunch of games set up for kids in the center. Stilts, pillow jousts, bean bag toss, etc. We walked the length of the main street and turned around to explore all the vendors and the square a bit more. When we learned the parade would circle the plaza before continuing down the main drag, we decided to sit and have appetizers and aperitivi. We thought we only had a few minutes before the parade began, and we saw a nearly continuous stream of people in medieval costumes streaming by, but as it turns out we had to wait a little more than an hour. The website said the parade began at 2 and the horse race would start at 3, but the times were off by an hour. Oh darn, sitting at an outdoor cafe in a beautiful cobblestoned plaza and people-watching while sipping cocktails, how awful. 

We really lucked out with our seats. There was a very kind American woman one table over, and we eavesdropped as she explained to another tourist about the parade route and horse race. She noticed us listening and we chatted for a few minutes about the various activities of the day. When the parade started, we had a fantastic view of all the participants as they walked down the last street of the plaza; they turned back onto the main drag right in front of us with the church serving as a backdrop. Their organization really impressed us (again, except for lack of signage and the confusion about start times). The parade kicked off right at 3, and they did a good job of separating the drum and bugle groups from each other by putting flag twirlers, townspeople, and horse riders in between them. There was even a group of monks and someone wearing a pope costume. Okay fine, it may have been a bishop or cardinal but he still wore a very tall and fancy hat and waved with a graceful benediction. He even stopped to bless some children, so I'm thinking this might have been an actual group of churchpeople. We saw donkeys and goats, men in stockades whose arms must have been very tired by the end of the parade, carts full of children which reminded me of clown cars, bakers, florists, and a group of camp followers who dressed pretty provocatively, if you catch my drift. Once the parade passed us, we all followed it outside the wall to what I suppose used to be a moat. 

For nine euro, you could sit on the moat embankment and have your back to the castle wall. For thirteen euro you could have an undesignated seat in the bleachers with your back to the road. We paid the extra four euros for bleacher seating, which was probably a good call since we didn't have a blanket to sit on or anything, and we mostly had our backs to the sun. We wound up at the far end of the moat and got to watch the tail end of the parade again as all the marchers had to make a giant cloverleaf loop to enter the moat and march to their spots. There was a pretty good delay between the end of the parade and the beginning of the races, but it wasn't a big deal. We were warned that there would be many false starts once the horse racing started, and when we saw the course we understood why. The "track" was a long and very skinny oval, requiring the horses to make tight turns in the corners. The jockeys all ride bareback, and there are no starting gates and no ground crew to help place the horses in starting position. Basically they all approach an invisible line and when they're all lined up and facing the correct position, the race starts. We understood there would be two heats of five horses, with the top three winners competing against each other in a third heat. Each race consisted of two laps, and we were far from the grandstand but directly across from the post where the horses make their last turn. The horses and riders entered the moat at the first post and completed a short lap. At this point, the three of us oohed and ahhed over the horses and jockeys, and picked a pony for which to cheer. My horse was one of the first ones out, and he seemed pretty spirited, which is why I picked him to root for, plus he was trimmed in beautiful forest green. After many false starts, the horses were finally off! 

The races happened very quickly. And on the first lap, two of the jockeys fell off their horses right in front of us! I didn't see the whole thing happen, but I think coming out of the turn they may have bumped into each other a little bit. One of the jockeys popped up and hopped over the fence very quickly in order to get out of the way of the other horses, but the other one was pretty slow to recover. He did eventually get up and move out of the way though, so I don't think he was hurt very badly, fortunately. The two riderless horses continued racing! By the time that jockey was up and moving, the horses were back for their final turn. My horse was in the lead, but it was a close race! We couldn't really see the finish line, and I'm pretty sure my guy won, but it was definitely a close finish. He may have given up the lead at the last second, or he may have just slowed down after crossing the finish "line" in order to make the turn for his victory lap. Either way, it was very exciting.

It wasn't long before the next race started, and it was carried out in much the same fashion as the first one. A jockey fell at the far end of the course on the last lap, and he had to be escorted out by ambulance. I hope he's alright. His horse kept running in circles until finally someone came out to catch and calm it. 

After the first two palio heats, there was a break so the horses and riders could all rest up a bit. During this time, there were some more festivities to watch. There was a funny sort of foot race where a bunch of guys representing the communities lined up on the track just the same as the horses, and they complete one lap, barefoot and carrying colorful banners. The dude with the green banner came in first, and his cheering squad went wild. I'm pretty sure he earned some very intense bragging rights. Next, many of the drum and bugle groups marched back onto the field and there was a pretty epic flag-twirling display. Each group was showing off simultaneously and while the drum beats were all in the same tempo, there were various musical flourishes happening up and down the field. We had a great view of three groups, and a pretty good view of two more, but have no clue what happened at the far end of the moat. Who cares, the groups in front of us were great! One group put a little kid out front for a big solo from the get-go, and that eight-year old kid rocked it. I kind of love how men in Italy are unashamed to twirl flags, and it is a very serious activity. Meanwhile, the group in front of us sent out a group of guys for flag tossing and choreographed double-flag twirling. Then another fellow stepped out to twirl and toss four flags at once. Trust me, it was very impressive.

We decided not to wait for the last race, so we skipped out after the drum and flag show was over. I feel like I experienced a true palio, and I didn't have to fight the crowds or pay exorbitant sums of money to do it, either. I will definitely look for this event next year and mark it on my calendar. Meanwhile, I hear there's another Palio in Monselice on September 20th. My aunt is in town and I think I will try to convince her to come check it out with me. [Obviously I did not post this before September 20th. Spoiler alert: we went to Monselice and it was fantastic. Expect a blog post about it soon-ish.]

P.S. This is definitely a kid-friendly event, so if you're on the fence worrying about your little ones, you should go!