In the early years of the seventeenth century, besides the ‘long’ Palios through streets of the city, they began occasionally to run some races around the Piazza del Campo, but only on 2 July 1656 was it established as a custom. As early as 1620 the organizer of the Palio had decided to institute on 2 July a race in honor of the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary which was kept in the new . . .