…we are perplexed, but not in despair…
2 Corinthians 4:8, NRSV
We had come to Ferrara for the palio.
And what is that, exactly?
Well, a palio is a horserace where the track is the town itself. There’s a famous one in Siena, but, as I discovered when I was researching this particular trip to Italy and entered “Italy festivals June,” so does a town named Ferrara, and it would, unlike Siena, fit our timeframe. The boys would like that, I thought.
This was 2016, and the boys were the two youngest of my five by far, the two still at home, the beneficiaries - victims? - of my travel bug, of the quest for the next memorable teachable moment. They were fifteen and eleven then, and yes, they were experts, the best travelers.