Stravaganza: City Of Stars Part 32

A Note on the Stellata and the Palio.

As Georgia discovers, the annual horse race in Remora is not quite the same as that of Siena. Some of the differences arise from the differences between the actual and imagined cities. Remora is divided into twelve wards called Twelfths, naturally while Siena is divided into seventeen contrade.

The Twelfths are named after the Talian version of the Zodiac, whereas the contrade take their names from a range of animals, even slow ones like Bruco (caterpillar) and Chiocciola (snail), and a few objects Nicchio (sh.e.l.l), Torre (tower), Onda (wave) and Selva (forest).

There is only one ward which is the same in both cities the Ram in Remora and Valdimontone in Siena. The colours of Valdimontone are also red and yellow and their symbol of the crowned Ram can be seen everywhere in the south-east of the city of Siena, in the Third of San Martino.

The Palio is run twice every summer on 2nd July and 16th August whereas the Stellata happens only once, on 15th August. Both can have extra races to commemorate special occasions. Only ten contrade run in any single Palio seven by right, because they won't have had a horse and jockey in the equivalent one the year before, and three drawn by lot. It is therefore possible for a contrada to win twice in a year, though this is rare.

The great Campo in Siena is not circular, but sh.e.l.l-shaped; nevertheless, it is still the case that the Palio, preceded by a two-hour procession, the Corteo Storico, takes only about a minute and a half to run. (It may take an hour or more, though, to get an approved start!) The Palio used to be run on the straight, from as far back as the fourteenth century, but transferred to the Campo in 1650. In Remora, the Stellata has already been run in the circular Campo for at least a century in 1578.

There are three aspects of the Stellata which I thought I had invented, only to discover that they had actually happened in the Sienese Palio. Hundreds of years ago, the jockeys in Siena were likely to be young teenage boys, and there was even a girl racing in a special Palio of 1581. She was called Virginia and rode for Drago (the dragon), but did not win.

And I discovered that there was an ancient tradition of contrade having special allegiances with other cities, long after I had decided on the Reman custom that linked the Ram to Bellezza, the Lady to Giglia and so on. As Alan Dundes and Alessandro Fala.s.si say in their book La Terra in Piazza (University of California Press, 1975), 'We must not forget that every contrada considers itself a little republic or state ... Many contrade have established twinning arrangements with other Italian cities, as if they were political ent.i.ties completely separate from the city of Siena.'

About the Mary Hoffman.

Mary Hoffman has written more than ninety books for children and young adults. She also reviews regularly for the Guardian and other newspapers and journals. She blogs weekly at www.maryhoffman.co.uk, where you can also find her tips on writing.

Mary's pa.s.sion for Italy is well known and she still studies Italian once a week in Oxford. She has three grown-up daughters and lives with her husband and three Burmese cats in a converted barn in the Cotswolds. And yes, she does have an Aga.

www.stravaganza.co.uk.

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THE STRAVAGANZA SEQUENCE.

By Mary Hoffman.

Stravaganza: City of Masks.

Stravaganza: City of Stars.

Stravaganza: City of Flowers.

Stravaganza: City of Secrets.

Stravaganza: City of Ships.

end.