Verona, Umbria Jazz and the last few days

That would be Dante

the poor lovers

medieval computer for writing love emails

that's it....

Hot Canadian in Verona (it was 36)

Garden Giusti

never figured this one out. I could make something up...

Went to Verona on the weekend -- a lovely city but it was quite hot. Romeo and Giulietta lived (and more importantly died) there. There is a renovated balcony/shrine that is the popular tourist destination. I found the Garden Giusti more interesting -- a traditional Italian garden with some Roman artifacts, cyprus trees, and hedges. Almost deserted and a lovely view of the river.

The Umbria Jazz festival has been on for a few days now and the town is packed. I saw Santana on a very hot evening -- I expect it was still over 30 at midnight. The drum solos were the big surprise for me -- awesome. Sergio Mendes also gave a good performance a couple of evenings later.

It has been an interesting time to be in Italy -- events in Tunisia and Libya, Greece and the EU, Ruby and other Berlusconi missteps  have given us lots to talk about over lunch, besides soccer which is the main topic of interest besides work.

Il Palio

really?

Note the 2 tossed flags

more tossed flags

a cardinal in action

icons of the various contrada

on track

coffee and almond biscuit

there are a few rules

still a couple of hours to go

the only quiet spot in the campo

Soon.....

Istrice neckerchief -- not sure of why there is a figure 8 knot but the Maltese cross is because they quartered the Knights of St. John in the 14th century.

the palio itself -- the prize

Very soon now

the lucky goose

On July 2 every year there is a famous palio in Siena. Loosely translated as a "horse race", it is more of a war between rival contrade -- 3 times around the Piazza Campo with no holds barred. Much jostling, fighting, bribing and horse doping. All taken very seriously. But the real goal of each contrada is not about winning, but rather not having the arch-enemy contrada win. So for example if Istrice draws a slow horse, it will devote all its efforts into preventing Lupa from winning. This year Oca (goose) won, yet again, and so Torre were humiliated. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth  in that camp. You are put in a contrada via a sorting hat which is a slow process given the 35,000 visitors (OK, I'm kidding about the hat). The flags and neckerchiefs and costumes are very colourful.

We arrived a few hours before the race in time to watch the various parades and flag tossing (bandiere) and had just enough time for a quick coffee and ricciarelli (Tuscan almond biscuits -- amazing) before the  gate opened to let 35,000 people into the centre part of the piazza. Then we had about 2 hours till race time. The crowd becomes eerily quiet just before the mossa (starting rope) -- I've never seen so many Italians in one place with no cel phone. The race lasts under 2 minutes and as previously explained, is as much about prevention as winning. We were cheering for Istrice -- the crested porcupine (motto: "Sol per difesa io pungo"  -- I prick only for self-defense). Our jockey apparently successfully blocked the Lupa jockey and both horses finished the race without their riders (perfectly legal). Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the actual race, but here is a link to a youtube video -- they had a better view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0__4wOoT-4


Here is a link to wikipedia for more details (for example I didn't realize the whips used were bull penises)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palio_di_Siena