Post-Palio Deconstruction
I nabbed the first picture on this page from someone’s blog (the rest are mine). It was dated 8/6/2009, which means whoever took this picture was in Siena when I was there. That’s so wierd — I could be in this picture! But I’m probably not.
Anyway, I don’t like this picture. The person who took it cut off the top of the Torre del Mangia, and that really bothers me. However, I’m including it here because it shows the Campo after the fence was erected, but before the tufo was laid down.
Ordinarily, this space is completely open. But one afternoon, the fence was there. It was interesting to see how it changed the way the place worked. When the fence was up, the graded space in the middle could no longer be accessed from every point. Instead, people had to walk around to an opening. During the day and in the evening, people collected around the fence and talked to each other.
One morning, soon after the fence was up, I woke up early and found workers in the Campo setting up very steep bleachers (palchi) in front of the buildings.
The bleachers were set up right in front of the stores and restaurants. There is space underneath them for people to access their stores, and there are actually openings in the bleachers that allow people in and out of the buildings and through the alleys.
The restaurants that line the Campo adapt to the bleachers by eliminating tables or pushing them out a little further.
Before bleachers:
After bleachers (and tufo):
“Tufo” is the name for the hard-packed earth that the horses race on. I’m not sure when they laid it down. Once again, I walked into the Campo and it was there!
They watered the tufo each morning to keep it supple. Even so, it was much harder than anything I’m accustomed to riding on.
On the morning after the Palio race, deconstruction began. I got up early enough to watch the process. In this picture, they are removing the viewing platform at the Vicolo Costarella di Barbieri.
(Ooops! Looks like I cut off the top of the Torre del Mangia this time….)
I knew there had to be some sort of peg for this column!
These holes help to secure the fences that surround the Campo:
Numbered covers fit perfectly into the holes.
Here you can see the preparation for fence-removal & hole-covering. Everything has its place.
Close up:
The tufo was laid right up against the fences.
Here they are removing the cushioning that covers the dangerous corner at Curva di San Martino
There’s the top of the Torre del Mangia!
A wheel-loader and a skid-loader pushed, scraped, and shoveled the tufo up off of the road.
The wheel-loader shoveled the tufo into the bed of a truck
Another skid-loader used a brush attachment to loosen dirt that got packed into the pavement.
Men followed with shovels and scrapers.
A truck mades several passes at the remaining dirt with a wire brush attachment
Workers hosed the remaining dirt off of the pavement.
They also hosed down the alleys that lead into the Campo.
The water from the clean-up ran down the travertine channels that separate of the nine sections of the Campo.
All of the water ran into this drain at the lowest point of the Campo.
The workers literally drew a line in the sand between the part they would complete the first day, and the part they would complete the second day.
The Civetta paraded all week long! On the way back up from the Campo that morning, I paused to let them pass. Finally, I dodged across the street & was nearly decapitated by a flag twirler!
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