SIENA: THE HISTORY

Siena is a municipality of central Tuscany. The city is universally known for its artistic patrimony and for the substantial stylistic unity of its medieval urban architecture. It has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Siena was founded as a Roman colony in the time of Emperor Augustus, and took the name of Saena Julia. The scarse yet reliable evidence of a preceeding period suggests the existence of an Etruscan community on which the Roman military colony settled during the time of Augustus. In the 10th century, Siena found itself at the centre of important commercial roadways that lead to Rome and, thanks to this, became and important medieval city. In the 12th century the city formed comunal consular ordinances, and began to expand its territory and form its first alliances. This political and economic situation led Siena to battle with Florence over the dominion of northern provinces of Tuscany. From the first half of the 12th century, Siena prospered and became an important commercial centre, holding a good relationship with the Church State; the Sienese bankers were a point of reference the authorities in Rome, to whom they gave loans or financing. At the end of the 12th century Siena supported the Ghibelline cause and found herself again against Florence, which at first suffered the worst, but then the Sienese lost the war at the battle of Colle Val dElsa, that brought in 1287 the government of the Nove (Nine). Under this new government, Siena reached her greatest splendor, both economic and cultural. After the Black Death of 1348 , the Sienese Republic began its slow decline, that reached its epilogue in 1555, the year in which the city had to surrender to the Florentine surpremacy.

SIENA: THE PALIO

On the 2nd of July and the 16th of August in the Piazza del Campo (Campo Square) in Siena the traditional Palio is held, a race where the horses are ridden without saddles by jockeys sponsored by the different contrade (quarters) of Siena, a race which monopolises the attention of the city for quite some days; this because of the fact that the Palio is not exclusively an historical display or a revisitation of an old medieval game, but it is the expression of the ancient and rooted Sienese tradition. The Palio is fare from being a display that you could pass off in only a few days, but it is the fruit of an accurate and maniac organisation on the part of the inhabitants of each quarter of the city, that conducts an intense social life during the whole year. The Palio attracts many tourists also, and is followed live by many watching on TV.