Last Minute Hotel Siena

Summer to Snow, Ridiculous to The Sublime

Hume Highway, a matchbox-sized hatchback, stuffed to the gunnels with padded clothing, the Mountains still three hours away.

Children screaming in the back. Father screaming in the front: “Don’t make me come back there!”. Me, staring out the window at the landscape just outside of frosty Melbourne, thinking “…this is a long, long way from Summer in Dubai ….” The last time I took this drive it was sodden in flood, and the time before, parched in drought. It’s funny how as humans, we always seem to struggle for extremes, but here mother nature shows us that ‘average’ is in fact perfect.

The earth is colored ochre, sienna, umber and coffee. It’s an artists pallette. Sandy limestone and blue granite launch themselves in geometric protrusions out of the hillsides like medieval ruins.

Every now and then, we pass swathes of buttercups, and I am reminded of the velvet green pasture of western Europe – where we probably would be right now, if my Mother had not been so inconsiderate in her timing of illness , bringing us back to Australia for the Southern hemisphere winter. But The fields here are distant cousins of the English countryside. Wild buff colored tufts of native grasses sprout between the green, so the paddocks appear to be jurassic proportioned mohair blankets fringed by leggy roadside eucalypts.

As with all car journeys, this one drags too long for the children. And so my winsome reverie is broken constantly by staccato yelps, whining requests, slaps and cries, and my own vehement threats to jump in the back with them and smack everyone, “NO MATTER WHO STARTED IT!”

Our car finally reaches Bright. The place we have decided to hire our wheel chains. Now, even the kids feel the snow is close. Fuel by the way of home-made sausage rolls from the local bakery fills our excited bellies, and we stock up on provisions, knowing the snow grocers will be sparse. At last, we begin our climb, and with it, the competition to see who might spot snow first.

But a mini blizzard has beaten us to the summit, and so visibility is reduced to 15 meters. Our tiny Hyundai bravely forces it’s way around slippery hairpin bends, ignoring the lengthening tail of SUVs impatiently trailing. Finally we give in, and pull into a chain bay in the darkness and Hambone enters the wild to attach the icy little buggers. He swears like a sailor, then I come out to supervise impotently and converse in “French”, while the leprichauns jeer on the sidelines unsympathetically. Finally it is done, and we b-b-b-b-bump our way up the last half-hour of hill.

The 2011 Palio dell'Assunta in Siena - From 13th to 16th August ...

After the Palio of 2nd July, dedicated to the holy Mary of Provenzano, the race comes back on 16th August : the Palio dell'Assunta ( Palio of the Assumpion of Mary) is one of the most famous folkloristic events of Italy, a major tourist attraction, whose origins date back to the late 16th century.

The usual ceremony is repeated year after year, the race has always played an important role in the life of Siena's people. The horse race takes place in the charming Piazza del Campo, on a tuff trail.

The Palio lasts four days: in the morning of 13th August the horse is assigned to the Contrada. This ceremony is called "la tratta". Then horses and jockeys can run 6 times in order to test the trail, three times in the morning and three times in the afternoon. The race taking place on 15th August, in the afternoon, is called dry run, while the last race in the morning of 16th August, is called "provaccia".

On 16th August, in the afternoon, after the passage of the historical parade, the "carriers" takes place on the suqre. Only 10 out of 17 contrade can attend the race. The competition is preceded by an amazing parade with over 600 characters in medieval costumes, who cross the whole town, coming to Piazza del Campo.

The Palio consists of 3 turns of the square Piazza del Campo on horseback: the starting point is by the Mossa, formed by two ropes where horses and jockeys must wait, their position is chosen with a draw, and 9 contrade come between the ropes, while the last one can run after the others when the ropes are down. The winning contrada will be the first one to complete the 3 turns.

The winner gets a Palio, called Drappellone, which can be kept inside the contrada's museum. The winning contrada has the honor to go to the cathedral in order to thank Our Lady of the Assumption for the victory.

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