Twice each summer, on 2nd July in honour of the Madonna di Provenzano and on 16th August for the Assumption, Piazza del Campo becomes the stage for one of Europe’s most visceral and venerated rites: the Palio. What unfolds in this shell-shaped square is not merely a horse race, but a centuries-old covenant between contrade, faith and fervour, a spectacle whose origins stretch back to the thirteenth century.
To witness it is rare. To arrive by La Dolce Vita Orient Express is extraordinary.
A Departure from the Eternal City
The journey begins at Rome Ostiense, where guests are welcomed into the La Dolce Vita Lounge — a prelude of polished brass, soft light and quiet anticipation. As dusk descends, the train slips from the capital with cinematic grace, carrying its passengers north through the amber folds of the Tuscan countryside.
Dinner is served beneath a ceiling of lacquered elegance: a menu conceived by three-Michelin-starred chef Heinz Beck, whose cuisine balances precision and poetry. Fine wines trace the contours of the landscape beyond the window; silver glints; conversation hums. Later, in the Bar Car, a pianist coaxes Italian classics into the night. The carriage becomes a salon — intimate, knowing, impossibly chic.
The Drama Unfolds in Siena
By morning, Siena awaits.
A private transfer delivers guests into the heart of the historic centre, itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From the vantage of Palazzo Chigi Zondadari, overlooking the Campo, the Palio reveals its full choreography. An aperitivo is served as drums begin to reverberate through medieval stone. Silk banners ripple. The air thickens with allegiance.
From private balconies, a privilege few will ever know, the race erupts below. Bareback riders thunder around the square’s earthen track, the roar of the crowd rising in waves. It lasts scarcely more than ninety seconds. It feels eternal.
Afterwards, the palace retreats into candlelit calm. A Tuscan dinner is served in rooms where history seems to exhale from the frescoed walls. Outside, the city celebrates. Within, refinement reigns.
Guests return to the train as night deepens. The Bar Car glows once more, laughter, music, a final glass. The drama lingers in the air like perfume.
A Rite, Reimagined
On the third morning, the train glides back into Rome. The journey concludes, yet the experience resists closure. The Palio belongs to Siena — but through La Dolce Vita Orient Express, it also belongs, fleetingly, to those who arrive in this manner: enveloped in elegance, suspended between centuries.
Operating on July 1–3 and August 15–17, aligned with the Palio on July 2 and August 16, this three-day odyssey forms part of the train’s summer itinerary. It is not simply an event to attend, but a tradition to inhabit.
In Siena, history does not perform for the present. It absorbs it.
And aboard La Dolce Vita Orient Express, one does not merely observe a rite — one enters it.
