On my last day of the Rimini BlogVille trip, we traveled to Ferrara for their annual Palio. The Palio is a traditional horserace that has existed in Ferrara since 1279. It's typically held in May, but because of the earthquakes that shook the Emilia Romagna region in May (which destroyed some towns surrounding Ferrara), the race was pushed back until June. Lucky for us, that meant we got to see it!
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Before the parade and the race, we stopped at a cafe next to this gorgeous church. We were all a bit tired and it was SO hot, so we tried to cool off for a bit.
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We all ordered a Caffe Shakerato, which is the Italian version of iced coffee.
There were tons of bikes in Ferrara, so many that it's often called the Amsterdam of Italy. My kind of city!
The parade begins
Each neighborhood in Ferrara is represented in the races, and they all have citizens dress up and parade throughout the city to the racetrack.
The Castello Esterno is one of the biggest attractions in Ferrara and has a great view of the city from the top, but was partially damaged during the earthquake.
Parade time
I loved how much greenery there was in Ferrara. SO much more than Florence..
We were escorted to the VIP seating to watch the races and sat next to many of the city and regional officials.
There are four races at the Palio-- boys running, girls running, donkey racing, and the horse race. Here, the boys are racing...
The girls getting ready to run. The girl and guy who won this year are the same that won last year too.
The winner
The donkey race was very interesting. Those things do NOT behave! We didn't get to stay for the horse race because it was going to take them about two hours to sift the race track and a couple of us bloggers had planes and trains to catch. Maybe next year!
BlogVille, it's been real. Thanks for everything (especially master of the house Nick!) and can't wait for BlogVille 2013!!
Be sure to check out the other bloggers' pictures of our Rimini and Bologna trips on my Pinterest board!
When did you take all these amazing photos? I don't even remember you using your camera :)
ReplyDeleteGreat post. It's so cool to revisit this day after so long. And I totally remember it being freaking hot.
You probably don't remember because I was being really quiet since I was so cranky from being so hot... and then you were probably in a trance from watching the tractor go around the track so many times.. good times good times
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