This morning we saw the time trials for the Palio in Siena. Every year there is a horse race and the teams are the different districts of the city who each have a flag and animal mascot. The man above is a part of the Snail district (there is a small snail on his hat) and he is marching in a parade standoff with the Giraffe district. We stumbled upon this tradition, and the people of Siena were very enthusiastic. The woman who we bought pottery from informed us that they used to have two districts stand on either side of Il Campo and throw rocks at each other. There also was a period in which they raced cows. The horse race has been going on for 400 years now.

Here is Giovanni and Caterina trying to push over the tower!