Twice a year, the Piazza del Campo thunders. Normally a picturesque place and rather serene, the square is lined with tables where al fresco dinners end and diners tarry with their last drops of espresso, or limoncello. The irregular, shell-shaped, sloping oval of the square spreads out under medieval buttresses and Torre del Mangia, a clock tower that, when completed in 1348, was one of the tallest non-church towers in Italy. Stepping out from the labyrinth of lanes leading up to it—11 separate, shaded streets feed into the square—feels like taking a trip back to the Middle Ages.
Italian jockey Stefano Piras (2nd L), who races for the “Bruco” district, falls during a false start of his horse, Uragano Rosso, during the historic Italian horse race Palio di Siena on July 2, 2022, in Siena, Tuscany. (ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images)
But during the Palio di Siena, which takes place twice every year in July and August, everything gets loud. Ten bareback riders, each one decked out in the colors of their “contrade,” or city district, hoof it hard on the best horses in the region, racing toward victory on soil laid around the perimeter for the occasion. It’s a wild spectacle, perhaps most memorably depicted in the James Bond film, “Quantum of Solace.”…