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VII – Racing into the Past

History is made active through remembrance. But not only remembrance, history that is simply remembered becomes little more than the past. History becomes active when it reemerges into the future. In one city in Tuscany, this happens every year on July 2nd and August 16th in a place called Piazza del Campo. The medieval Piazza fills with thousands of people from the present, coming to watch the past continue into the future. Traditions are upheld, thousand-year-old pride becomes re-enflamed, and Italian passions ignite as ten contrade vie for the prestige and glory of winning the Palio di Siena. The past is remembered and creates hope for the future, in both those inhabitants of the city and the thousands who come to experience cheer on those persons’ past. For a moment, the Piazza is drawn back to that time and the people with it, into an active history.

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