Cuffia is a symbol they give at the contrada that has not won the longest. They also say “contrada nonna”.

  • The term cuffia is recent and dates from the 1950s. A cuffia is the white cap that grandmothers wear.
  • The date of July 2, 1719, the victory of Aquila who had not yet won a Palio until then is considered the start date of this statistic.
  • The absolute minimum to become “nonna” is 8 years, as there will have been 16 races in that period, which means that all contrade may have won. However, this has never happened. What we have seen so far is a series of 12 different neighborhoods that win over a 6-year period. This happened between 1872 and 1877. (Tartuca, Istrice, Chiocciola, Pantera, Drago, Torre, Valdimontone, Nicchio, Civetta, Bruco, Lupa, Oca).
  • OCA and TARTUCA have never worn the “cuffia”.
  • To date, the cuffia has been transferred 14 times in July and 17 times in August.
  • Nappa managed to make 3x the cuffia disappear for the contrada for which he rode: Pantera (3.7.1904), Aquila (16.8.1906) and Chiocciola (2.7.1911) were the lucky ones.
  • Biggeri, on the other hand, first passed on the cuffia to Lupa by winning for Aquila on July 2, 1796, but also managed to “free” Lupa on August 16, 1809.
  • Leocorno is record holder by not winning 55 consecutive Palios while they were nonna.
  • Aquila and Selva are the only neighborhoods that got rid of the cuffia after a victory with a scosso. Aquila on July 2, 1852 and Selva on August 16, 1953.
  • Lupa is the first neighborhood in history to get rid of the cuffia with a cappotto (2016).
  • 3 contrade have not yet won in the 21st century: Aquila (luglio 1992), Nicchio (agosto 1998) and Chiocciola (agosto 1999).
ContradeStart Cuffia
Aquila
Nicchio02/07/1719
Pantera02/07/1731
Leocorno16/08/1744
Giraffa18/08/1776
Selva03/07/1794
Aquila17/08/1794
Lupa02/07/1796
Drago16/08/1809
Selva02/07/1833
Giraffa02/07/1840
Aquila02/07/1852
Drago15/08/1871
Valdimontone16/08/1874
Leocorno16/08/1875
Giraffa16/08/1883
Onda16/07/1887
Pantera03/07/1892
Aquila03/07/1904
Chiocciola16/08/1906
Civetta02/07/1911
Torre02/07/1934
Selva16/08/1939
Bruco16/08/1953
Istrice02/07/1955
Drago16/08/1956
Pantera16/08/1962
Lupa02/07/1963
Leocorno02/07/1973
Bruco17/08/1980
Torre16/08/1996
Civetta16/08/2005
Lupa16/08/2009
Aquila02/07/2016
Last update : 7 december 2019