Onda - The Wave

Settling into bed on one of these past weekday evenings, my roommate and I heard interesting sounds coming from the Campo. It was about 12:30am and we could hear drumbeats and singing coming from outside our window. We jumped out of bed, threw on more appropriate clothes than our pajamas and raced out the apartment door. We arrived just in time to witness a group of about 50 young Italians parading around the Piazza del Campo. They were waving flags in sync with the drums, carrying a banner, and singing harmoniously. They were members of the Unicorn contrada and although they had captured the Palio over a month ago, they were still celebrating their win.

The "Palio" is huge horse race that takes place in Siena every July and August. More important than futbol to the Sienese, the Palio draws thousands upon thousands to the campo to watch this 90-second mad dash.

Siena is comprised of 17 districts or “contradas” that enter horses in the Palio. Each district has a distinct shield, mascot, colors, fountain, and church. There are rival districts and therefore makes for heated competition during the race. Think Yankee/Red Sox but dating back over 500 years. Only 10 Contradas are featured in the Palio during which the horses race 3 times around the Piazza del Campo. There are no rules and the horse does not need its jockey to win. The winner of the Palio receives the highest honors and gets a trophy (a piece of silk), which is also called the Palio.

On Monday our group was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to tour Contrada Onda, “the wave”. This is the contrada where I live, so I was eager to learn more about its history. Our tour guide was an elderly gentleman, Signor Pietro, who taught us about Onda’s history in Italian— we had John, our director, translate.

Here are some of the things I learned:

Onda menas the Wave. It’s colors are blue and white and its mascot is the dolphin—a pretty intimidating dolphin with massive teeth. The church was constructed over 900 years ago. It was originally a church for the woodcutters of Siena, but in the 17th century the Onda contrada moved in. That is why San Giusseppe is both the patron saint of woodcutters but also the patron saint of Onda. Inside the church only contrada members may come to mass. They hold weddings here, funerals, and baptisms. On the day of the Palio the horse is actually brought into the church so the priest can bless the horse and its jockey.

The church has a balcony that has a beautiful view of one of Siena’s large churches. It overlooks the Tuscan countryside as well as the streets of Onda’s rival contrada Torre—the Tower. Pietro said that it is because of their close proximity that these contradas are enemies. “When we celebrate, they are bothered. When they celebrate, we are bothered. We are just too close. When we win the Palio, we shoot fireworks over the Torre”. Contradas also have sister districts. Pietro told us that when Onda is not selected to race in the Palio they work with their other sister contradas to defeat the Torre.

Each contrada also has a fountain used for baptisms because those from Siena are not able to freely choose to which contrada they would like to belong. You must be born within the district boundaries and every June there is a baptism in the contrada’s fountain for all the babies to become members. It is absolutely like a religion here. If parents are from two different contradas they must choose into which contrada they want their children to be baptized. Our guide said that many parents in this situation strive for even numbers of children, but in his case he has four children and they were all baptized into Onda. It is possible for a non-Siense spouse to be welcomed into the contrada but only after many years of devoted participation in contrada events.

In the museum located in the basement of the church featured all of the costumes (over 150 in all), drums and flags of Onda. Down here is also where all of the Palios won by Onda are displayed. The first Palio ever won by Onda was in 1500 The last one they captured was in 1995. In total Onda has won 46 Palio titles. The Palios are beautiful silk pieces with paintings on them featuring different scenes or aspects of Siena or the race. In this shrine the ceiling is painted with the coat of arms of each family in the contrada.

Watching the contrada festivities in the city is exciting and the celebrations seem to never stop. Today beginning at 8:30 in the morning and continuing every 2 hours or so, members of the Torre contrada, dressed in full costumes, were gathered in the Campo to wave their flags and beat their drums. It was sort of a mini parade.

Booo Torre, waking us up this morning. Vai Onda!

check out more photos on my Kodak Gallery page.