Photography by Marilyn Price

Italy 2007

Store display of Palio flags, Siena, Tuscany, Italy

This photo shows a display of Palio flags. The Palio of Siena is a festival held twice each summer and throws the city back into medieval times. The highlight of the festival is a bareback horserace around the edges of Il Campo (pictured above). Each of the 17 districts of the city sponsors a horse and each has their own set of colors and flags. It is quite colorful, as these souvenir flags suggest. On the morning of the race, each horse is led into a church in its district to be blessed. The race lasts about 90 seconds, but the pagentry goes on for hours.

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