I am just ending my first week abroad in Siena Italy, and wow!  In just this week alone I have heard so many interesting historical stories, myths in this culture, seen historical places, and the culture it’s self.

In this post I really want to talking about the contradas.  Now you may be asking what is this; a contrada is an area in Siena.  Sieana is broken down into 18 different contadads each having their own mascots.  Some mascots are the eagle, tortes, snail, and the unicorn.  A persons contrada depends on where you are born and grown up.  When you are born you are baptized in a fountain in your contrada ( this is not a religious thing, more like a right of passage.)  Now I live in the Unicorn contrada. Each contrada has its own flag and colors.  Everyday you can hear drums from one of the contradas and see parades with flags, music, people following.  It is a big deal here.

So what is the point of this?  A big horse race called the palio will be happening on July 2nd and all the contradas, come and watch this race hoping for their team to win.  People carry flags of their contradas and wear their colors,

Each contrada  has an enemy, for example the eagles hate the fish.  People know when they step in a different contrada  because immediately the flags change and all the lamps and statues now match the new contrada.

I learned all my information by my school,  they took us on two all day tours of the city and its history.

Below I attached 3 pictures:  1, of the fish flag, 2. where two contadas meet, and 3, a parade( of the unicorn contrada 🙂 )