The Donkey Palio Race - well not really a race

One of the most coveted events of our Truffle Festival itinerary was attending the annual Donkey Palio.  A crazy race of donkeys that sees the nine boroughs of Alba compete for the conquest of the Palio (a drape). The Palio is preceded by a historical parade with over a thousand characters, during which each village performs a historical episode of medieval inspiration.  One heat of the race is on a donkcy your borough picks, the second heat of the race is done by random drawing of the donkey to be ridden, adding a bit of mystery to the proceedings. No?

Pre-race donkeys in the square for random drawing

Glazed Veal Check with Porcini Mushroom

We drove to Alba as we had the day before a little later in the morning and the traffic was nuts.  There were thousands of cars, buses, people on foot to attend the festival. Once we found parking, we wandered through the tents and crowds again and had a lovely lunch at Voglia di Vino Laconda.  Just the beginning of our decadent eating extravaganza while in Alba.   Luckily, we got a seat without a reservation, everything was packed.  

Lacquered Baby Pork belly with Aubergine

The moment had arrived to take our seats for the 2pm race.  The crowd filtered in slowly but was electric with excitement.  We had a Barolo wine tasting event scheduled at the Truffle Festival tent at 3:30 pm, but figured how long can a donkey race last anyway?  We thought we might have to run through town for the tasting, but we were trying to pack all our fun into one day. 

As we sat there, we were regaled with many speeches in Italian from the local dignitaries. Then the parades and reenactments began by each neighborhood/borough, which was clearly customary prior to the donkey race event.  As time time ticked by via a giant hourglass (really), we realized that we may not see the donkey race at all before we had to leave. Mike was inconsolable about missing the donkey race.

While the pageantry was beautiful, with glum faces we left our seats and confirmed the we could re-enter the palio later with our tickets and made our way to the wine tasting.







The wine tasting event was in Italian only, so we understood nothing but got to taste 3 lovely Barolo wines. About an hour later we were slightly tipsy from the wine tasting and still sad over missing the donkey race.  Quickly we made our way back to the palio stands to see if we could catch a glimpse of the donkey race.

When we arrived back to our seats, the original musicians appeared to be performing their finale performance. We were dejected all over again.  Then at about 5pm, two tractors came out onto the track and appeared to be preparing for the race after the performances, just like the Zamboni. Our mood began to improve.  Then Mike began looking for his cell phone and realized he did not have it after the wine tasting. Panic ensued. I made a beeline back to the tasting room. They were cleaning up but had his phone.  I made it back to the race, just in time to see the end of the 2nd heat of the race.

Zamboni tractors readying the track for the palio

A rider decked out in his medieval garb.

Trying to hold this donkey back, he is ready to go.

This was during the race, somebody is going the wrong way.

A rare upright rider.

I desperately wanted one of these vests the judges were wearing. 

This guy was out of control at the start.

We watched and laughed our "asses" off over the donkey race and the craziness of it all. I use the word race very loosely, several of donkeys went backwards around the track, one jumped over the hay bails off the track altogether.  The townsfolk took it very seriously and it was as rowdy as a soccer game when the winners were announced.  It was a full day of highs and lows at the Donkey Palio.