The annual races of Florence on the 24th of June, the festival of St. John the Baptist. The prize was the Pallio , or mantle of “crimson silk velvet,” as Villani says; and the race was run from San Pancrazio, the western ward of the city, through the Mercato Vecchio, to the eastern ward of San Piero. According to Benvenuto, the Florentine races were horse-races; but the Pallio of Verona, where the prize was the “Green Mantle,” was manifestly a footrace. See Inferno XV 122. ↩

Between the Ponte Vecchio, where once stood the statue of Mars, and the church of St. John the Baptist. ↩

Campi is a village between Prato and Florence, in