Victory Parade
What an experience! This summer my husband and I were our own
tour guides in Italy. We stayed in Florence for a few days,
left the city and stayed outside San Gimignano in a small inn in
the Tuscan hills. We traveled to small towns from there, using
it as a base.
The day was warm to begin with and half way up, we found a neighborhood bar where we
were able to get a cold fruit drink. The bartender told us
that we missed quite a celebration the night before as their
Contrada, De Orca, had finally won the Palio. We left the bar and continued our walk. We
enjoyed the beauty of that sleepy town that was defiantly
recovering from the festivities of the night before. Late in
the afternoon I was in search of the home of St. Catherine of
Sienna.
Soon a man appeared in the middle of the intersection. He was
dressed in all green and white Renaissance-era tights, a green
and white striped long sleeved belted top with a flared hem, and
a soft cap. He was carrying a large banner which matched the
ones flying above the street. The next thing I knew, another
man, similarly dressed, arrived. He was drumming a complicated
beat on his large drum. Those beats echoed up and down the
cobbles and stone buildings in the neighborhood.
Spectators
then arrived, carrying banners and wearing matching goose-covered scarves. Others opened windows above me and waved
banners out of their windows. Also joining the first two men
were other men of all ages dressed in like costumes carrying
drums and banners. All of the drummers beat the same
complicated sequence of beats that the leader beat. I would say
that at least 100 men lined that intersection and spread out
waving the banners and drumming what was now a deafening cadence.
Now for the odd part: All of the men marching in the parade
and many of the spectators carried baby items. Men in their
sixties and young boys in their teens sucked on pacifiers;
others had baby bottles filled with liquid tied around their
necks. They also sucked on the bottles while preparing for this
parade. Still others had rattles and other small baby toys tied
to their scarf or around their necks. Spectators also carried
and used bottles, pacifiers, and rattles. The shop owner could
only explain that they won the Palio. No one in the crowd could
explain more. We watched as the men sucking on bottles and
pacifiers marched up one street into Sienna. We could hear the
drums long after we lost sight of the men and the banners.
We took a bus back to our car late that night and was not able
to stop back at the bar to ask about this curious custom.
Though some of the people who operated the inn had been to the
Palio, they did not know about this custom.
Any help from you or your listeners would be appreciated. Enjoy listening to your program!
Anne
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