House of Dioxin

How is it possible that I've been writing here for almost 4 years and have never told y'all about il Palio. It's a bareback horse race that takes place twice a year (early July and mid-August) in Siena. The different neighborhood associations, or contrade, compete against each other. The race has been going on for centuries and has accrued lots of very complicated and difficult to understand rules. We were lucky enough to be in Italy in August 1999 and got to see the race on TV, and with two people familiar with the race to explain what was happening (since we didn't understand enough Italian to figure out what the TV commentators were saying).
They race in the Piazza del Campo in the center of Siena, which is quite small and has some absolutely sick corners. Crashes are common. In last week's race, one of the jockeys took a header over the front of his horse. The prize for winning is the banner, or palio, which is designed for each race. And, of course, bragging rights over the rest of the city. They take it very seriously. The horses are walked into the church in each contrade to be blessed before the races start. It's considered a sign of good fortune if the horse takes a dump on the church floor. Jockeys and horses are hired by each contrade and there have been several scandals over the years.
Last week's champion was Istrice (the porcupine). Here's video of the race: