“Your blazing flags and your glorious and historical Palio are symbols of everlasting youth.” Pope John XXIII – 1959”

 

That’s the kind of spirit and anticipation it takes to truly understand the Palio.  It cannot be thought of as just a “show”, but as way for people, who are unable to grow old, to express themselves.

 

A show tries to trick or deceive you. However, the Palio is all real. Its tension, its rivalry, its love and its emotion are all real. You watch, feel and run the Palio breathlessly, for one gut-wrenching minute, fleeting all at the same time. Gone in the blink of an eye.

 

According to Machiavelli, humans are aware that Fortune is a permanent obstacle to their Free Will.  Nevertheless, they won’t give up fighting. And they do it, conscious of their possible, but honorable defeat:

 

The place where Fortune and Virtue still come face to face is the Campo square.

 

The Palio is an unforgettable experience, because watching it makes you feel like you’re actually living it. You have to let it to dig a light furrow, a scar that, probably, won’t ever disappear. A scar that Tripoli Torrini, winning rider in the ‘30s, nicknamed Tripolino, remembered like this: “the palio slashed my soul. In the shape of a smile”

 

 

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