Palio degli Asini, Alba

The Donkey Palio is held the first Sunday of October each year in Alba and is very enjoyable to watch. Many of the donkeys are assigned only on the morning of the race to each rider....

so they don't have too much time to become acquainted with each other!  Which becomes obvious when the donkeys are unwilling to run! And show how stubborn they can be!

In fact many of them seem to want to get rid of their riders as soon as possible!

The judges........

sit in the middle of bales of hay....  and assign points!  For performance???

And the award at the end, the Palio, is given to the winner by the Medieval judges, the Bishop having by now totally fallen asleep!!