Italian Palio at the seaside: crew, full speed ahead!
Not just horses, flag throwers and medieval cloths. Actually, the most famous “palio” is the one of Siena but if we go down the Italian coastline, we’ll meet amazing events concerned with the ancient sea incursions. Starting with the “Palio” of Spezia, near Lerici and Portovenere – the ancient fortress-towns featuring the jewels of the villages of Cinque Terre.
From Liguria let’s move on to Tuscany and reach Argentario. Sea currents and river debris made up the sand accumulations of Giannella and Feniglia that are featured by the Orbetello lagoon and connect the Argentario Mountain to the mainland; it is a chalky mountain that offers amazing beauties along its coastline. The most important town in that area is Porto Santo Stefano – in the province of Grosseto – where the Palio of Argentario, called the Sea Palio, is held each year on August the 15th. It is a rowing regatta, four boats with four rowers and an helmsman take part in the competition by representing the four districts of the town: Croce, Fortezza, Pilarella and Valle. The crews compete for the palio along a four kilometres course made of four four-hundred metres lanes.
On the other Italian side, the Eastern one towards the South there is Puglia and Taranto, the town of the two seas: the Small Sea, a stretch of water almost closed and the Big Sea, an open natural harbour that looks towards the Adriatic Sea. Two-thousand-five-hundred years ago this town was a flourishing and modern Greek state-city and the most powerful overseas “polis” and the palio is held every year in this town. It is a rowing regatta and the ten districts of the town are the protagonists. The eliminating rounds take place in May while the second race is generally held on the third Sunday of July but it was held on the third Sunday of June in 2015. It was held for the first time in 1986 and the elimination rounds take place together with the celebration in the honour of the Patron Saint, San Cataldo.
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