This week was just a mix of bad and amazing.  I will start with the bad first.  Then end on a happier note.

Last weekend was awful!  my friend Sierra and I paid to go on a tour to see more history about Italy,  but we missed the tour,  Then my phone was stolen because my phone was stolen we missed our train,  Lastly we got stuck in a different city because apparently in Italy trains do not go far distances after 7:30 PM

Even though all this happened  This week was AMAZING.  Because we missed our tour we made our own day traveling,  while we did that we turning around to ask someone in the line for the bus if we needed a ticket,  The husband and wife tell us they cant help us because they are deaf!  (This is perfect because we are studying sign language)  So we got to try out our new LIS  (Italian sign)  skills. I would also like to add that the classes here are so fun!

Also In my last blog I talked about the different contradas and how the pallio was going to happen.  This week we got to see it!.  This event is no joke!  The tower contrada is the one what won.  Before the race there are parades, then the jokey are blessed and at this point can not be changed.  Then they have police bring a paper of the order of the line up that the horses will stand in.  Now this paper is extremely important because it determines how good you will probably do in the race.  Jokeys will try to switch places, because it has to be in this specific order it can take hours to start the race I would say we stood there for a good two hours waiting for them to quit cheating and get in order.  Then the race started at the end  people started cheering, crying, screaming.  I even saw a few fights brake out between enemy contradas  It was a huge thing.  It lasted from 3 pm- 12am and into the next day.  they paraded around the horses, they were singing, the campo (where the race happened)  was PACKED.  You could only stand there was barley any room, flags were all over the place.

I did a little digging into why people would be fighting,  Apparently  contradas that know they can not win will group up to help another or try to hurt their enemy.  For example, a jokey in a contrada that will not win may whip another jokey or their horse,  sometimes they knock them off their horses, It is really insane.

I really can not explain well enough how amazing and intense the whole pallio was you would defiantly have to see it in person.

Below are pictures of the parade, a horse that raced, and how packed the campo was.