Italy Photo of the Week: Siena Palio Marching Band

I’m going to try something new and introduce an Italy photo of the week to you here. I’ve got a bunch of pictures uploaded now on the Italy photos page of this travel guide, and that’s not even all the photos of Italy I have (there are still plenty which pre-dated my digital camera, so I’ve got to find time – or a willing slave! – to scan them), so I should be able to keep this up for awhile. Plus, I plan to be seriously snap-happy on my upcoming trip, so that ought to set this feature up for awhile.

For starters, check out this picture from Siena in 2001:

I was there in July, almost exactly between the two runs of the Siena Palio. So while I didn’t see any crazy bareback horse riding, I did see sand between the stones of Il Campo and I did see one of the contrade marching with a band and flag bearers through their neighborhood and then into the piazza. Think of this like a pep rally – the band was followed by folks who lived in that neighborhood, all wearing the flag kerchiefs around their necks. It was pretty fantastic.

Check out my other Italy photos and the other photos of the week!