Coaching for Pizza: Palio Legnano 2018 . . . Medieval Pageantry and Some Horse Racing

Sunday, 27 May, 2018

On May 29, 1176, the forces of the Holy Roman Empire, led by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, fought the Lombard League's army in what became known as the Battle of Legnano.

This weekend, the modern day city of Legnano would once again celebrate the major victory by their local heroes, the Lombard League, 842 years ago.

Thus we trekked south to enjoy a scorching day at a medieval pageant and see a bareback, Palio horse race.

Or two.

Or three.

But were we in the right place?

This looked promising

Legnano's City Hall was all decked out

What's that sign say?

We ARE at the right place!

People walking around in this

style of clothing should have

been our first clue

Has anybody seen our leader?

There is his worship

My underlings need

a good flogging some days

846 years later,

women still dig men in uniform

ON TO VICTORY

MEN OF LOMBARDY!

How did one of our Skorpions

get on a Legnano Municipio wall?

Swito has to be a prime suspect, don't you think?

Lombardia Banner

Greater Milan Banner

The colors of the eight

Legnano Contradas

that will vie for honors today

The most famous Palio in Italy takes place twice a year in Siena, once in July and again in August.

In Siena, the city is composed of 17 distinct Contradas or neighborhoods that are fiercely loyal to their own kind. Only ten of these 17 Contradas get to race in each of their Palio race dates.

Joe Mollica and I attended Siena's Palio back in 2009 and had a wonderful time, so I was really looking forward to seeing Legnano's version with Laurie today.

The Legnano Banner

Nice Municipio ceiling art

This HUGE Crucifix will

be a prize trophy later in the day

Still marveling at the Municipio

Pride in the past

We needed a cappuccino

and a brioche to continue

This former pharmacy turned caffè filled the bill.

Now as for Legnano's Palio, it would be much smaller as Legnano only has eight Contradas, not 17 as in Siena.

The Contrada banners were colorful . . .

La Flora

Legnarello

Sant'Ambrosio

Being her sadistic self, Laurie wanted to root for this Contrada given their symbol.

San Bernardino

San Domenico

Sant'Erasmo

San Magno

San Martino

I planned on rooting for this Contrada in honor of our Skorpion WR Martino Piazzi's great game last night against the Blue Storms.

We were counseled to get to the city's calcio stadium early to buy our tickets, so we started a slow walk in that direction.

Laurie found Italian

wine with her decidedly

non-Italian name on the label

We were in "her" Sant'Ambrosio

Contrada so we stopped to eat

One of Pacio's cats?

A simple repast

For Laurie, Truer Words Were

Never Spoken

Sant'Ambrosio Drum Corps

warming up

WWII Legnano Heroes

We got to the stadium in plenty of time to buy two end zone, non-reserved seat tickets for a reasonable price. Also it was all that they had left.

The stadium doors would open in about an hour and we wanted to secure a good spot in the cement bleachers early on in the day.

While we waited for the gates to

open, we would be . . .

. . . sorely . . .

. . . TEMPTED!

Other than a beer and a gelato, it was a scorching day after all, we were strong!

The stadium is a huge home

field advantage for

Contrada San Bernardino

We're going in at last!

And we were WAY too early!

We were located in neither of our

two desired Contrada's fan base areas

Instead we were in GREAT seats in the Contrada Sant'Erasmo section.

And it was HOT!

How hot you ask?

It was . . .

. . . Nonno Wears a Wife Beater Hot!

The very definition of the word scorching!

Finally, after nearly two hours

sitting in the Sun, the Contradas

started to slowly parade into the stadium

Drums and . . .

. . . trumpets led the way

Flags and . . .

. . . Banners too

It took six Men-at-Arms

to carry the Legnano Banner

Loving the Heraldry!

The Contradas each march in

extremely slowly

There was about a five minute span between the end of one Contrada's lap around the infield and the start of the next Contrada's victory march.

We had dancing girls

Children

Contrada Queens and . . .

. . . Princesses

Sword wielding Contrada Lords

Cool hatted groomsmen

A Man of Letters

Well dressed drink servers

Laurie's Contrada

Sant'Ambrogio procession . . .

. . . Complete with a Cat o' Nine Tails

What is making these lasses

dance so crazily?

Oh, a witch of course

Garland bearers

Contrada Royalty

Contrada Grunts

Archers

Fire Breathing Mystery Man

Juggling on stilts can NOT be easy

Peregrinos on their way

to Santiago de Compostela

I usually talk at length about the Camino de Santiago at this point, but not today.

What a skirt!

Someday I'LL wear that crown!

Old Guys Rule!

Love the Michael Contreras

style beard

Nice Flowers

After the recent Royal Wedding in

the U.K., I was getting into the

whole royalty thing

Industrial sized crossbows

Best Drummer tunics of the day

in my opinion

It's good to be a Knight

Remembering the Fallen

"If I loose 20 kilos, maybe they'll

give me a horse next year."

A Female Archer

Was this allowed 846 years ago?

Prancing and pulling the

Queen's Wagon

Orange is nice

A unique looking drum

Great Banner

Lots of Clerics in . . .

. . . Contrada San Magno

He'll cut your head off

just for the fun of it . . .

. . . But not hers

These capes must cost a fortune!

Crusaders

Liking the shredded look that

is so popular in jeans today

As I mentioned, we were in the Sant'Erasmo section and quickly figured out that we would both need to switch our allegiance to them if we were to escape with our lives.

You see, Sant'Erasmo is Italy's Patron Saint of Rowdiness.

And here are Sant'Erasmo's two

passionate ring leaders

Contrada Sant"Erasmo was

ON THE TRACK!

Laurie's video of the

Contrada Sant'Erasmo parade

Lots of Birds of Prey

One big one!

A few pelts that their birds

accounted for in the field

Contrada Sant'Erasmo Maidens

Our Queen . . .

. . . and our King

A fine Contrada Sant'Erasmo steed

Appreciation from the

Contrada Sant'Erasmo spectators

to the Contrada Sant'Erasnmo marchers

The last Contrada entered the stadium

Resplendent Banner

Their Beautiful Queen

I love Italian bread

She is a Sophomore at the

University of Washington

studying Homeopathic Medicine

I'm happy to be here

We're going to die, aren't we?

The Contrada marches were finally over after nearly two hours.

All they needed to do was reassemble in the infield and then start the race.

Did I say race?

Lots of color

See what I mean

A Carroccio

or Sacred War Wagon

drawn by oxen

A Carroccio like this one was a symbolic key to the Lombard Leagues victory. The huge crucifix on board will go to the winning Contrada soon.

Those are BIG animals!

We are now all assembled,

all we need is a Knight to lead us

into the Battle of Legnano

How about him?

Guido da Landriano

His mounted troops rode two laps

around the infield . . .

. . . at a rousing full gallop!

Finally we were ready to start

the Palio race

Not true.

I meant races.

Unlike Siena's one, ten horse race on their Municipal's ancient piazza, Legnano's would be a three race affair.

A random draw placed each Contrada's horse into one of two four horse semi-final races.

The top two horses in each semi-final race then makes the final.

The first horse was out for

Semi-Final #1

After prancing about and warming up for a bit they entered the starting area, no chutes just a rope to hold the horses back.

THEY'RE OFF!

Here they come into our

turn for the first of four times

How do these jockeys stay on?

Magnificent animals

Look Ma, no hooves on the ground!

The four lap race takes just over a minute to complete.

Our first two qualifiers for the Final Race were the horses representing the Contrada of Legnarello and, Laurie's original pick, the Contrada of Sant'Ambrosio.

Why are the Sant'Erasmo fans so excited

over the Semi-Final #1 races end?

Their (our?) horse was not in the race but you see the horse from Contrada San Domenico was.

And it did not come in first or second so it and its Contrada were eliminated from the 2018 Legnano Palio Final Race.

And Sant'Erasmo fans hate San Domenico fans.

Thus the fans around us instantly celebrated San Domenico's loss with a lilting refrain that all true Sant'Erasmo fans, both young and old, used to serenade the San Domenico fans that used the word "culo" a lot.

The San Domenico fans took exception to this gesture for some reason.

On to Semi-Final #2 . . .

The Sant'Erasmo horse

was named "Habanero"

A good omen, I thought.

I liked the looks of this horse

Here comes Semi-Final #2

La Flora leading Sant'Erasmo

with one lap to go

Home stretch and Sant'Erasmo's

jockey is looking back to see how

close the third horse was

He wasn't, which means that Habanero and Contrada Sant'Erasmo were in the Finals!

Laurie's video of Semi-Final #2

Now with Contrada Sant'Erasmo in the Finals, another round of that Culo song broke out aimed at the now distraught and by now schifo (Italian for disgusted) San Domenico faithful.

There would be a half hour break to give all of the horses time to recover from their Semi-Final races.

It was a chance for all of us facing the still burning Sun to take on heat stroke.

We were up to the challenge.

The Final Race of a long day

It started about five hours after we first entered the stadium.

Laurie's Final Race Video

Just like in Semi-Final Race #2, La Flora came in first and Sant'Erasmo took second.

Contrada La Flora celebrating

their first Palio win since 2010

That is when things got interesting. You see, this was now the signal to the so far quiet Contrada San Domenico fans to fire up and start firing verbal salvos back at Contrada Sant'Erasmo since Habanero didn't win it all.

It was a FULL SCALE Italian verbal, hand gesture and body language battle.

Nothing physical happened and the riot police intervened to be sure it did not escalate further.

We used their cover to quietly sneak out of the stadium to make our way home.