Il Palio di Ferrara

Today was the Palio in Ferrara. This is an ancient series of races that has been run in Ferrara since 1259, and it is the oldest Palio in the world. There are 4 races: a boys' race, a girls' race, a donkey race, and a horse race. The whole day is a festival, beginning with a large parade in which everyone wears medieval costumes. There are 8 participants in each race representing the 8 contrades (quarters) of Ferrara, and the spectators show a lot of pride when their representative wins a race. Unfortunately, the day ended on a sad note when a collision on the track left a jockey and a horse seriously injured.

For my pictures of the Palio, click here.




I really enjoyed the trumpeters - very majestic. You could truly imagine royalty being escorted into the stadium back in 1300.


The children were delightful in their costumes. I think they were having the most fun.

The boys' race. The guy in the red and green won.

The girls' race. The girl in the yellow and purple won.

The donkey race. I think the guy in red and green on the dark donkey won, and it was the most hilarious thing I'd ever seen.

This little guy ran the whole race without a rider. And he wasn't nearly in last place.

The horse race. This is just before everything went horribly wrong. The race was declared to have no winner.

The horse ambulance. They constructed those green barriers and were trying to make us leave at this point because they didn't want the crowd to see the animal put to sleep. But we had already seen enough. Parents were shielding the eyes of their children and the entire crowd was in tears. It was heartbreaking. The jockey had been taken away in an ambulance, so his condition was unknown.