The Palio takes place twice a year against the magnificent backdrop of the Piazza del Campo. The first race always takes place on July 2, in honor of the Madonna di Provenzano, and the second on August 16, to honor Our Lady of the Assumption, patron of Sienna. It is no exaggeration to say that Sienna lives for the Palio!

The main event in the Palio is the horse race in which the horses run three laps around the perimeter of the piazza, competing for a silk banner which, though literally named the palio, the Sienese call the cencio. This race is an evocation of the city's most splendid era, the Middle Ages, and the magnificent festival is both a cultural celebration of chivalry and an entertainment. It provides an occasion to relive all the tensions and divisions that characterized the medieval city.
Sienna is divided into seventeen contrade, or town districts, but not all of them can race in every Palio. Lots have to be drawn and contrade are thus excluded or included. The complicated system was codified at the beginning of the 17th century by the governor of Sienna, Violante Beatrice of Bavaria who was the widow of Ferdinando de' Medici, the Grand Prince of Tuscany.
The contrade were originally designated districts relating to the military organization of Sienna as they provided the points of reference in times of war when both the nobles and the people had to take up arms. Seeing all the participants parade in their 15th century costumes is truly a magnificent sight.
The origins of the Palio go back even earlier than this, to the 13th century. Today's Palio is not merely a recollection of this moment in history, but it is a continuation of this period, the greatest in the history of the Republic of Sienna.
Perhaps now you can understand what it means to say that the Palio is Sienna and that Sienna is the Palio.