Il Palio finale

Four nights of the last week they held time trials of just the running portion, one night for each neighborhood. A team, made up of guys age 18-30 (we think, but they all smoke, so maybe they're younger), would spread out along the course like a relay. At the central pier, the boat lay on the ground with the first group. At some signal, they would quickly flip the boat off the ground and onto their shoulders (this was clearly a well-practiced maneuver, as the boats were heavy), and run down the street. The next group would meet them at a designated spot and take over. At some of the trickier points, like at the final turn of the switchback stairs, instead of trying to maneuver the boat up, they threw it up to the team above. I worried about the condition of the boats, because you can imagine how often they bang against walls and such.

But I needn't have worried, because it ends up it's two different sets of boats. And there's a girl involved. We didn't realize that part either. So last night we joined the crowd down by the lake. We're not sure what starts the race, there's no gunshot or anything, and the announcer was as surprised by the start as us, announcing, "oh, they're off!" (or the Italian equivalent). The boats, with two rowers, make their way from the starting point in the lake at one end of town, around a buoy and over to the central pier. At that point a girl jumps out of the prow of the boat with a flag, races down the pier, and hands off the flag to part of the ground team. The ground team quickly flips the boat up onto their shoulders, and they're off. Since we chose to stand by the water, we can't see the runners, but we can see the bottoms of the boats above the crowd as they race by. They're going really fast, much faster than during the time trials. Centro Storico came in last in the time trials, but so far they're in the lead.

Finally the first boat is back. It's dropped heavily on the ground, the girl gets the flag and races down the pier literally throwing herself into the prow. It's still Centro Storico in the lead, but now close behind her is Centro Due, and their girl is a really fast runner. She speeds down the pier, and they're off. Olivetto's boat comes back next, but their girl has already given up and does a minor canter down the pier and a clumsy maneuver into the prow. Quick behind her is San Donato, who's still trying hard, the girl's a tiny little thing that zips down to her boat.

The boats pull out for the final turn around the buoy and then to the finish, the shore of a park on the other side of town. It's Centro Storico and Centro Due battling for the title. At this point John and I are trying to figure out where exactly the finish line is. Is there something you cross? Is there something you touch? But I think we're just too exact as Americans. At some point it's just clear that Centro Storico is reaching the shore first, and the entire red team pours off the shore into the water to surround the boat. It's a touching victory moment.

While you might think that the other teams would be sad about losing, you would be wrong. The rest of the evening all of the teams celebrated their achievement, chanting, throwing colored smoke bombs, and generally having a wonderful time. It all ended with a lovely fireworks show over the lake at midnight.