All the roads in Siena lead to the Campo.  Twice a year (July 2 and August 16) the piazza is converted into a hippodrome.  It is not merely a show for the tourists, it is a real contest among the districts of the city, the winner takes home the Palio (an official banner) and becomes a hero.  How long has this been going on for?  Gee, a mere 700 years or so.

The Virtual Reality movie gives a good feel for what the plaza looks like (full size/full resolution version available).  Perspective, and the fact that the plaza is not flat, play some interesting tricks with the buildings.  

It was a remarkable lighting situation.  The morning was clear, with completely pure air.  Looking in the sun's direction you were blinded by the sky and reflections off the shiny pavement.  The opposite direction was equally blinding, receiving 100% of the sunlight dead on.  You were so blinded by the strong light that details in the dark were impossible to see.  The CCD elements in my electronic camera were very unhappy with me  and essentially told me "hey, buddy, you're on your own".  The resulting pictures were pure doo-doo (makes you a little nostalgic for the film days).  

Interestingly enough, the electronic doo-doo pictures were hiding some information.  After hours/days of tweaking I was able to reconstruct the picture in its present form (electronic is not so bad, after all