We had a great day visiting
the Palio d’Asti, the medieval horse race, in the town of Asti. It is an all-day annual event that has been
held since 1280.
During the day they had parades as all the people from different guilds and boroughs had their particular marches through the town to the churches, each with different colours. They each had a horse in the race as well. The costumes were spectacular. There was an official parade through the city which went for about two hours.
The day culminates in a medieval horse race. In keeping with its medieval tradition, the jockeys still ride bare-back which gives an additional element of excitement to the race as it's difficult to ride a horse at full speed without a saddle without falling off. We booked tickets months ago and had excellent seats, we could see the start of the race and as they did their first turn – the course was a triangle and the first turn was particularly hairy as they were going at full-speed and it was the first corner they had to negotiate. There was a big smash up at that corner and three jockeys fell off – a tense moment as we waited to see if they all get up – yes horses and jockeys were all ok (although one jockey probably had a broken leg). A mad dash to get them off the course before the horses all came around again. Very exciting.
During the day they had parades as all the people from different guilds and boroughs had their particular marches through the town to the churches, each with different colours. They each had a horse in the race as well. The costumes were spectacular. There was an official parade through the city which went for about two hours.
The day culminates in a medieval horse race. In keeping with its medieval tradition, the jockeys still ride bare-back which gives an additional element of excitement to the race as it's difficult to ride a horse at full speed without a saddle without falling off. We booked tickets months ago and had excellent seats, we could see the start of the race and as they did their first turn – the course was a triangle and the first turn was particularly hairy as they were going at full-speed and it was the first corner they had to negotiate. There was a big smash up at that corner and three jockeys fell off – a tense moment as we waited to see if they all get up – yes horses and jockeys were all ok (although one jockey probably had a broken leg). A mad dash to get them off the course before the horses all came around again. Very exciting.
