About us

My wife and I first visited Siena in 1974, coincidentally a dozen days after the July 2 Palio. On the street we saw spectacular pictures of the match that stuck in our memory. A few years later we saw a German documentary about Siena, a “red” city, ruled by the communists for decades, but also “The City of the Madonna”, and about the great impact of the Palio on the inhabitants. The communist mayor Barzanti, as vice-president of the European Parliament and chairman of the culture committee, would later successfully argue for the acceptance of Saint Catherine of Siena as the patron saint of Europe. What a beautiful and intriguing city! But on vacation we stayed much more in Florence. Siena remained a very pleasant Tuscan ending. On July 3, 1983, I happened to read in the Gazzetta dello Sport that a horse had won the Palio without a rider. How is that possible? During the Easter holidays of 1984 we spent a day in Siena and my sons bought some irresistibly beautiful Palio flags. But the interest went no further.

And then the first miracle happened! At the end of August 1986 I found the English edition of the voluminous, beautifully illustrated and well-written book Palio by anthropology professor Alessandro Falassi and a few collaborators in an Antwerp bookshop. It wasn’t cheap and I wasn’t really interested in horses and races, historical costuming and what I ended up considering as a nice but “folkloric festival” for Sienese and to attract tourists. Because our children were too small, we had spent two years on the Flemish coast, enduring rain and wind and lots of clouds, and in a fit of Tuscan nostalgia I bought the book.

And soon after, a second miracle happened. A week later, Raiuno was on cable and on Saturday afternoon, September 13, they did broadcast the Palio Straordinario, according to many, the course of the century. And again I didn’t understand much: the long incomprehensible starting procedure, riders beating each other with whips, how short the race was and the hysteria after it. Paolo Frajese, news anchor of the Rai gave the commentary, shouting “Ha vinto il Montone”. I had the book on my knees and found no contrada or quarter called Montone. So I decided that the book was incomplete and that contrades were missing. I only found out later that Valdimontone had won!

In the winter I read the book and was deeply intrigued by stories of age-old rivalries, brilliant but often unreliable horsemen, accepted corruption and deceit and cunning, violence and absurd jokes at the expense of the rivals, the intense and sincere experience across generations. Here an unknown, strange world opened up.

And on Saturday, June 27, 1987, we arrived with our three sons in an agriturismo 20 km from Siena, two days before the start of the party. And yet we did not immediately go to Siena. Doubt reigned. What did we have to do with it in the end. On the morning of July 1, I saw the morning ride with two sons and in the evening the whole family saw the fifth evening ride on a full square. The fascination started to work. The day of the Palio, Thursday 2 July, I went to town with 2 sons at 2.30 pm, five hours before the race. Not knowing any better, we were on the square at 3.30 pm, and still in the front row in the infamous curve of San Martino. Actually a totally irresponsible decision. No one will spend hours in the Piazza del Campo under a scorching sun and 36 degrees with children aged 7 and 5 years. The historic procession only started at 5.10 pm, the starting procedure at 7.30 pm and more than 20 minutes later they were gone. “Here come the horses” I shouted to my sons and seconds later we saw in a huge cloud of dust a fall involving four riders. Favorite Silvano Vigni detto Bastiano remained lying in the middle of the track and stretched out his arm for help. Straight to us! He could just be carried away before the fantini passed back 25 seconds later. “Who won”, I asked after the race. “Selva” I heard. Can’t, I said, because I had bought the newspaper and read that the evening before, at the contrada’s evening party, Selva’s capitano had officially declared that their horse Vipera had broken a bone in a leg and would not be able to participate. I received my first instructive introduction to the dark strategies and practical jokes of the wonderful Palio world.

I was leaving the square with my weary sons straight for the exit under the main grandstand when I saw a horse a hundred Ocaioli charging towards us… luckily on its way to the mattresses of San Martino behind which their hated rival Torre, who had not even taken part in the race, was laughing at them because their rider had also fallen in the first turn. The blows fell and I learned a new lesson about the intensity and seriousness of the Palio. I had read a bit about urban culture in Tuscany in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance and felt as if I was watching a major riot between Guelphs and Ghibellines.

All our holidays have been organized since July 2, 1987 so that we can attend the Palio and since August 16, 1989 I have seen all the Palios on site, from July 2 and August 16 and even two straordinarii in September 2000 and 2018.

In August 1988 I was lucky enough to be introduced to Silvano Vigni detto Bastiano, the most intelligent, ironic and sometimes hilarious irresistible storyteller about the world of the Palio but also about rural life in Tuscany because he was the only fantino who also farmed. was in the middle of the wonderful landscape of Le Crete di Siena. Our contact has grown into a true friendship.

It was also, and perhaps especially, the beginning of lasting friendships with Sienese and other contradaioli from outside the city. The Palio is the celebration of “stare insieme” or being together in exuberant friendship with lots of food and drink and … great fear because only one wins and all the others lose … These friends have taught me everything about the wonderful and always amazing Palio world. Intelligent people with mind at zero and eyes on infinity!

My eldest son Jan-Christiaan has also been affected by the microbe and the inspiring brain behind this site. My other sons visit regularly and bring friends. About ten years ago, on the evening of August 16, 35 people from Lier turned out to be on the Piazza. And some come back and back and back. The Palio is a disease, a dangerous microbe. And this site tries to make you all part of that. Welcome!