AN ITALIAN JOB

Xander Brett takes in the Palio di Siena, reportedly the oldest continually running horse race in the world

- Xander Brett

To step into an Italian summer is to step into an oven. It's an unrelenting furnace, under whose sky, an event is staged twice annually that discards the daily routine of the city of Siena. That is, of course, if Siena has a routine for the rest of the year.

In the days leading up to the Palio dell'Assunta (the Palio di Siena's August edition), it's hard to imagine this city ever recovers an equilibrium. So fierce is the rivalry, I will meet a resident whose mother, having married into his father's contrada, is effectively moved out of the house for a week.

A contrada - or contrade plural are the city districts battling it out in this most violent of contests (10 of the 17 contrade compete each time). It's a spectacle with its roots in the 17th century, thus staking a claim to be the oldest continually running horse race in the world.

I arrive the morning before, walking uphill through streets bedecked with district flags (each contrada is but a few blocks in depth). Tonight will see a penultimate trial, with three laps of the Piazza del Campo: the city's central square, where tomorrow's main event will be staged. The six trials are Palios all but in name, with a parade of carabinieri proceeding the off (this year, to male gasps and female cheers, the parade is led by a policewoman).

The centre of the 'racecourse' is packed sardine-style with thousands of spectators. Similarities end, however, when the starting rope comes down, and no more than a canter breaks out. The same horses and jockeys will ride in the main contest, and all are conscious to avoid injuries. In the days leading up to the race, horses and jockeys are guarded 24/7 to avoid interference from rivals.