My Second Day Alone and Already I am in a Parade!

It was wild commotion, pandemonium, noise, singing, bells ringing and hundreds of people gathered.  I grabbed my camera. All the excitement was happening at the square across from my hotel so it was easy access.  And the size of my camera makes all who look at it think that I am some kind of official photographer allowing me to walk right in to places.  It ends up that the district (contrade) I am staying in, won the July 2 Palio race and the party is tonight!  I started in the church where the kids were getting ready, I think they are poppies.  They were incredibly bored waiting for the event to start so to amuse themselves they would ring the bell inside the church and then run like mad before some parent grabbed them.  In the meantime, the grown-up parade participants were gathering outdoors dressed in all sorts of costumes.  The drummer started playing and the whole group started to march through the streets into the Piazza del Campo.  I joined in right at the beginning and marched the entire route along with my comrades, taking photos along the way.  The streets were lined with onlookers and everyone ended up in Piazza del campo. It was a lot of fun!