Absolutely! Not only is the Palio inseparable from the physical city of Siena, but most of the horses are raised and trained on the farms and near the city center. The race takes place around the Piazza del Campo, in the very heart of the city, surrounded by the towering Palazzo Pubblico (town hall) and its famous bell tower. Each summer, dirt is laid over the piazza's stones to form the track. This dirt is called tuffo. The city's walled layout, with its distinct neighborhoods spreading out from the central piazza (public square), is precisely what gave rise to the contrade system in the first place. Siena itself sits on three hilltops in the Tuscan countryside, and its geography historically defined where people lived and worked, which in turn shaped the neighborhood identities that compete to this day. Siena actually came about as a trading city, and later the economic center of Italy, starting the first bank of the country in 1472. The long history of Siena and the very tradition of the Palio have been intertwined for nearly 800 years, making the Palio an event that is impossible to separate from the city itself.
