The Contrada

Sunday 9:30 am

As we were planning out our day on the steps of the Duomo, we heard
drums fire up again as they did the night before. Last night it was
the Contrada that won the August Palio ( I'll explain what the Palio
is later) the BRUCO. This morning it was the PANTERA.
Let me give you some background and you will see why Siena is such a
special place. The Contrada(s) are 17 medieval districts that continue
even today. There has been and continues (in some sense) to be
rivalries between them. Two people from different Contrada can marry
but they each keep their own Contrada. Newborns are baptized into the
Contrada chosen by their parents ( I don't how that could not be the
source of a major arguement) Each Contrada has its own colours and an
animal symbol. PANTERA for example is the panther.
One of the traditions which goes from April to September is to have
each week, on a Sunday, one of the 17 Contrada parade around the city
and visit all the other Contrada. We saw the procession forming and
just followed not kmowing where they were going. They ended up at the
TARTUCA. The next video is what we saw. These processions went on
throughout the day as heard the drums fire up every so often. So my
tip to you if you visit Siena during the summer is to have your visit
include one Sunday.