How is the estrazione done?

Not everyone knows how the estrazione works, not even in Siena. On the site www.ilpalio.org we found the following description: “The mayor places the names of the 17 contrade in an urn and then takes out the number of neighborhoods to complete to ten. These contrade (generally three, unless there are districts with a pending disqualification) then draw, through their captain, the districts that will run the Palio.

In the second phase, the 10 neighborhoods that participated the year before are placed in a different urn. The first captain selected by lot will draw the first district that is allowed to participate. Then the second captain and so on until we get to ten participating districts. If a disqualified contrada is drawn, it will be eliminated (allowing them to pay all or part of their penalty) and a new draw will immediately take place.

When the 10 districts that are allowed to participate are known, the mayor will continue with the draw until all 17 districts have been drawn. After all, the order is important for the Corteo Storico.