THE PALIO TO VENICE
1725
XIX
Had Siena not done away with its Pagan roots? Its celebration of the Palio seemed so profane in some ways; not in the idea of the races as such, but in all the other fuss and furor, as though the horses allowed people to practise idolatry. I suppose it was more the frenzy I found disturbing, much as I had experienced in the Festa. And then one day, I began to laugh at myself. It was fear that kept me bound this way, that made me frightened to open up and celebrate with these people… fear that made me judge. I"d had a sudden realization that the whole of Roman Christendom had been built over—physically on top of—Roman idols! Saint Catherine"s sarcophagus in Saint Maria sopra Minerva in Roma, I said to myself, is built upon the Pagan Temple of Minerva. I laugh
