The Palio is a yearly horse race in Siena, Italy since the eleventh century. The Palio is run for rivalry between 17 contrada's. The goal of the race is to win the prized banner. The banner is also called Palio. A Palio race may be held for many different reasons. It could be held in the honor of anscestors, religious figures or just run for rivalry (Dundes and Falassi 5). There used to be many different Palio races held in the cities of Italy, but today there is only one real true Palio, which is held in Siena, Italy on the Piazza del Campo (Dundes and Falassi 5). There are 17 contrada. The 17 contrada are rival wards. Not all 17 contrada can race in the Palio each time because in 1971 a law was passed that limited the number of contrade from 17 to 10 because of limitation of the space on the Piazza del Campo (Hume 231). .
The Sienese are very involved in the Palio. They are always thinking about the races and never stop being concerned with it (Dundes and Falassi 11). The people of Siena spend all of their time planning for the parade, celebrations and the actual race. They spend every free minute practicing their skills or preparing whatever needs to be done because the Palio race of Siena is a very important tradition to them (Jaratt 3). There are three main jobs in each contrada. The captain, barbaresco and comparsa. The captain is in charge of the contrada's strategy and money. There are two strategies that the contrada go by. They can either try to win the race, or they can try to make the other contrada's lose. The barbaresco takes care of the horse that their contrada is using in the race. The comparsa are the people who dress up in fine vividly colored costumes and represent their contrada in the parade and other celebrations (Jaratt 3). There is also a barbareschi. The barbareschi ins!.
pect the neighborhood to make sure there is no cheating or anything dangerous that could ruin the events (Jaratt 3).
