Mystery at the Palio di Siena: ‘the witch’ makes an appearance

Oh dear, oh dear, they say has predicted more victories for the Lupa, the Istrice’s rival district! “But I won’t go beyond our boundary,” says a member of the district busy trying to shoo her away, more frightened than suspicious, whilst she scoffs with a most enigmatic grin.

The mystery isn’t easily unravelled, and this is abundantly clear on this mysterious 16 August. She walks away, staggering, her footsteps muffled by the darkness. The inevitable video (just what we needed, for heaven’s sake!) capturing the scene is causing a stir in the chat rooms.

Now, whether she is an actress sent by the enemies of the She-Wolf, or simply a prank by some jocular types (of whom there is certainly no shortage in Siena), remains to be seen. Or perhaps she was just a passer-by who felt the cold particularly keenly? The fact is that, with the heatwave looming, despite the rain (which already smacks of malevolent weather influences), a woman dressed to the nines, complete with a long overcoat, trousers and a sassy look in her eyes, well, she certainly wouldn’t go unnoticed! And a Pirandellian twist with such an outfit is all but guaranteed, a piece of cake, especially these days! Besides, there’s never any need for macumbe, least of all at the Ferragosto Palio!

Could it all be a joke?

But in Siena, as is well known, rituals are no laughing matter, least of all during the days of the Palio, which has been held without fail for centuries in honour of the Madonna di Provenzano and, later, the Assumption. And if, to make matters worse, the bad weather – during these days of stifling heat – spoils the festivities, with the tuff soaked through and the green flag flying for two days in a row, well, that’s quite enough – and more than enough – for the city!

It should also be added that this year the Madonna depicted on the banner did not exactly have a delicate appearance, which was unwelcome to many Sienese, who have given it the masculine nickname ‘il Madonno’! And then the bishop’s office also spoke out against it, and on the canvas there are even the fish that ‘have invariably brought the water’, as so many keep repeating! So here we have a flood of prayers, incantations, curses, hopes, various anecdotes, amulets and macumbe galore, and so on and so forth… And just to top it all off, no sooner said than done, we were missing the noir actress… No, no, you don’t mess about with the Palio in Siena! If even Luigi Lovaglio (CEO of Banca MPS) invokes the Madonna to protect the bank’s integrity during the ceremony to receive the Mangia, then faith in the city is even intertwined with high finance – which, these days, with Monte dei Paschi’s future in the balance, is no small matter...

No, that wannabe actress really wasn’t what we needed. And then – boom! – word got round, and it spread like wildfire, that one of the jockeys had come down with a stomach bug!

No, that’s a bit much!

Who knows – when it comes down to it, even your gut has its own troubles!

Now, looking back through the centuries, it is clear that instances of bad luck – to give an example – are a dime a dozen, and indeed abound to the extent that one might call the circumstances a coincidence, if you will, or the most classic of fortuitous unforeseen events that could apply to the case in question! But hardly anyone in Siena believes it’s all down to chance! Bad luck reigns here just as much as good luck, which is decidedly more fickle, given that only one of the ten competitors racing out of seventeen ever wins the coveted palio...

At this point, in order not to lose credibility, it would be useful to refer everyone to Seneca’s De Providentia: Calamitas virtutis occasio est (misfortune is the opportunity for virtue), not least because – and let this be said without any disrespect – I personally find the pseudo-sorceress, or witch dressed in black, if you will, rather endearing. The races won by last-minute hot favourites, however, are a little less so: so long live the thrill of the shrew! And long live the witches who exist only in fairy tales (or in the dark pages of history)... Fingers crossed, of course!