Giovanni Atzeni, Tittia: The Rider Who Won Both Palios of 2026

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He won the Palio di Provenzano in July for Aquila and the Palio dell'Assunta in August for Nicchio, then fell heavily on the tufo seconds after crossing the line. He was discharged from hospital on 22 August after four nights. This page holds what is established about his condition, his record, and the race he is missing on 6 September.

STATUS, 15 September 2026. Giovanni Atzeni made his first public appearance since the fall on Sunday 13 September, riding in Nicchio's victory procession through Siena beside the contrada's Capitano, Fabio Giustarini. Asked how he was, he answered for himself: "Sto bene, ho ripreso al 100% e avanti nella vita" — I am well, I have recovered fully, and on with life — adding that he is back at work in the stable every day. Before that, the record is clinical: he was discharged from the Policlinico Le Scotte in Siena at 16.00 on Saturday 22 August 2026, from the osservazione breve intensiva unit, after four nights, having been admitted on the evening of the race with a trauma cranico. No hospital bulletin has been issued since the discharge. Anything more specific circulating about his injuries is not carried here, for the reason given at the foot of this page.

Siena hires its riders. The horse is drawn by lot and belongs to the race; the fantino is engaged by a contrada's Capitano after the assignment, is filed in writing on the morning of the race, and from that moment cannot be changed. He is a professional, riding bareback on a track of packed earth laid over stone, for the Drappellone — a painted silk banner — and no prize money. The city knows him by his soprannome — the Palio nickname — and not by his surname.

For a decade the name that has mattered most is Tittia.

What happened at the finish

The fall did not happen during the race. It happened after it.

Atzeni had already crossed the line and won when he was caught in the crowd of Nicchio supporters coming onto the track before the field had come to a stop. He and Anda e Bola went down together. He was taken to hospital by ambulance, conscious. Doctors found a head injury — trauma cranico — and admitted him to the osservazione breve intensiva unit as a precaution. Daily bulletins through that week reported, in La Nazione's phrase, "costante miglioramento delle condizioni del fantino". He left on the Saturday afternoon.

The horse was examined by vets and found to have suffered no consequences.

Nicchio's Capitano, Fabio Giustarini, speaking the next day: "Lo trattengono in osservazione qualche giorno, mi dispiace molto." They are keeping him under observation for a few days; I am very sorry.

The invasion itself became the argument of the following days, and it is not a small one. La Nazione put the tension plainly on 19 August — "Invadere il tracciato al terzo giro è una pratica radicata nella tradizione del Palio, ma è anche considerata una delle fasi più pericolose": coming onto the track on the third lap is rooted in the Palio's tradition, and is also held to be one of its most dangerous moments. Twenty-four people were treated by emergency services across that day and seven were taken to hospital. The debate belongs to the Comune and the Consorzio, and this page does not pretend to settle it.

The record: thirteen, and a fourth cappotto

"Leggendario Tittia!" — legendary Tittia — was how La Nazione and Il Messaggero independently headlined the August result, and the arithmetic carries the word.

• Thirteen career victories, equalling the total held by Trecciolino.
• One short of fourteen, the all-time record held by Andrea Degortes, Aceto.
• A fourth cappotto — both Palios of a single calendar year. No fantino had managed more than three: Isidoro Bianchini, Dorino (1786, 1790, 1792) and Nicolò Chiarini, Caino (1805, 1810, 1816). The fourth is his alone.

He was 41 at the time of the August race.

The race-by-race albo is the Comune di Siena's to publish and is held in its own archive of recent Palios; it is not reproduced here, because a reconstructed list is worth less than the authority's own.

The 2026 double

Two contrade that had waited a combined sixty-two years won them back in six weeks, with the same man in the saddle. That is the fact underneath the record, and it is why the city reacted the way it did.

Full accounts: the Provenzano result · the Assunta result, the field and the four days · both answers, in eight languages.

The race he is missing

The Palio di Asti is run on Sunday 6 September 2026, in Piazza Alfieri — the date is the Comune di Asti's own, which publishes ticket-office hours for "il Palio che si correrà domenica 6 settembre 2026" and an access notice covering the trials on the 5th and the race on the 6th.

He should have been in it. Atzeni won the Palio di Asti in 2025 for Borgo Don Bosco, on a horse called Anacleto, in the 750th-anniversary edition — ending a twenty-nine-year wait for that borgo. His move to the colours of Nizza Monferrato for 2026 was, in La Nuova Provincia's phrase, one of the principal transfers of the mercato paliesco — the rider everyone else had to beat, on the strength of Asti last year and Siena in July. He is not riding. Nizza Monferrato's colours go instead to Gabriele Puligheddu, who is making his Asti debut, on a horse called Anacleto, among twenty-one accoppiate contesting a drappo painted by Marco Aru.

Puligheddu works in the same stable, and his account of Atzeni's recovery on 4 September was, until Atzeni spoke for himself on the 13th, the closest thing to a bulletin anyone had.

The result. The 751st Palio di Asti went to San Martino–San Rocco, ridden by Dino Pes, Velluto, on Excalibur — the borgo's first drappo in fourteen years, and Pes's second Asti win after 2019 for Cattedrale. It was not a clean race: after two false starts the mossiere, Andrea Calamassi, judged the third valid, the riders of San Pietro and Tanaro came down, and two horses finished riderless, the favourite Tanaro among them. Nizza Monferrato did not win. Beyond the winner, no source we have opened publishes the finishing order, so where Puligheddu placed is not recorded here.

The next Palio in Siena is the Provenzano of 2 July 2027. Nothing has been said, by him or by any contrada, about who rides it. What is known about 2027.

Practical information

Can you see a fantino before a race? Yes, and it costs nothing. The prove — six trial runs, mornings and evenings, in the days between the tratta and the race — are free to watch from the Campo, and they are where the riders are actually visible at work. How the horses are chosen, and what the tratta is.

Where the terms come from. Fantino, soprannome, cappotto, tufo, tratta, canapi: the Palio glossary.

A note on what this page will not print. Reports circulated in late August giving further injuries and a fixed period of convalescence. Every source we opened directly — La Nazione, Radio Siena TV — names a trauma cranico and nothing else, and no hospital or contrada statement carries more. Detail about a living man's health is not something to repeat on the strength of a search result. If an authority publishes more, this page will carry it, dated.

Continue reading

• Who won the Palio di Siena 2026
• The Palio dell'Assunta 2026: the field, the days, and the result
• The seventeen contrade of Siena

Sources

• Palio di Siena, Tittia dimesso dall'ospedale — Radio Siena TV (22 August 2026, 18.35) — opened 5 September 2026: "Giovanni Atzeni detto Tittia è stato dimesso questo pomeriggio dall'ospedale Le Scotte di Siena", and "Adesso per Giovanni Atzeni ancora diversi giorni di convalescenza, per i traumi riportati." No injury beyond the head trauma is named.
• Siena, Tittia dimesso dall'ospedale dopo la rovinosa caduta al Palio dell'Assunta — La Nazione (22 August 2026) — opened 5 September 2026: "i medici del policlinico Le Scotte di Siena, dopo gli ultimi accertamenti, oggi alle 16 l'hanno dimesso dal reparto di osservazione breve intensiva (Obi)". Discharge at 16.00, four nights after the 18 August admission. The only injury named is trauma cranico.
• Tittia dimesso dalle Scotte: "Bentornato a casa" — La Nazione (23 August 2026) — opened 5 September 2026: the daily bulletins' "costante miglioramento delle condizioni del fantino", and "Impossibile che prenda parte al palio di Asti del 6 settembre". Checked explicitly for a rib, a cervical vertebra and a collar: none of the three appears in the text.
• Comune di Asti — read 5 September 2026, the issuing authority for its own Palio: "Ecco gli orari della biglietteria del Palio che si correrà domenica 6 settembre 2026". The date is the Comune's; no rider list is published there.
• Tittia torna in pubblico dopo l'incidente: "Sto bene, ho ripreso al 100%" — La Voce di Asti (14 September 2026, 14.12) — opened 15 September 2026: his first public appearance since the fall, on Sunday 13 September at Nicchio's victory procession beside Capitano Fabio Giustarini, and his own words to Gazzetta di Siena — "Sto bene, ho ripreso al 100% e avanti nella vita". Also that his 2025 Asti win for Borgo Don Bosco came on Anacleto in the 750th-anniversary edition, ending a 29-year wait.
• San Martino – San Rocco vince il Palio di Asti 2026: il Drappo a Dino Pes, alias Velluto — Quotidiano Piemontese (6 September 2026) — opened 15 September 2026: the 751st Palio, Dino Pes Velluto on Excalibur for San Martino–San Rocco, the borgo's first win in fourteen years; two false starts, the third given by mossiere Andrea Calamassi; the San Pietro and Tanaro riders down; Pes's earlier Asti win in 2019 for Cattedrale.
• Diretta del Palio di Asti: la finale — La Nuova Provincia di Asti (6 September 2026, 19.18) — opened 15 September 2026, second and independent: the same winner, horse and rider, and two horses finishing scosso, the favourite Tanaro among them. Checked in both: neither publishes a finishing order beyond the winner, and neither names Nizza Monferrato's placing.
• Puligheddu, debutto ad Asti: "Atzeni sta bene, Anacleto è una grande opportunità" — La Voce di Asti (4 September 2026, 11.19) — opened 5 September 2026, and the freshest word on his condition: "Giovanni sta bene, grazie a Dio. In scuderia sta facendo qualcosina, quindi è andata bene." Also that Puligheddu makes his Asti debut for Nizza Monferrato on Anacleto.
• Palio di Asti, la griglia dei fantini è completa: Tittia resta il grande punto interrogativo — La Voce di Asti (21 August 2026) — opened 5 September 2026: twenty-one accoppiate, the drappo by Marco Aru in Piazza Alfieri, and Atzeni as "vincitore del Palio 2025 e destinato quest'anno a vestire la giubba di Nizza Monferrato".
• Palio di Asti: Tittia è il nome da battere, la griglia dei fantini al completo — La Nuova Provincia di Asti (12 August 2026) — opened 5 September 2026: "Il nome da battere è quello di Tittia, vincitore con Don Bosco lo scorso anno e poi trionfatore a Siena", and the transfer to Nizza.
• Come sta Tittia dopo la caduta — La Nazione (19 August 2026) — opened 5 September 2026: Capitano Fabio Giustarini's "Lo trattengono in osservazione qualche giorno, mi dispiace molto."; the track-invasion debate, "una pratica radicata nella tradizione del Palio, ma … anche considerata una delle fasi più pericolose"; 24 people assisted and 7 hospitalised. Checked explicitly for a rib, a cervical vertebra and a collar: none of the three appears.
• Palio di Asti 2026 — Comune di Asti — read 5 September 2026: the trials on 5 and the race on 6 September. The Comune publishes no rider list, so nothing about who rides is sourced to it.
• Comune di Siena, official WhatsApp channel, evening of 18 August 2026 — the Assunta result: Nicchio, ridden by Giovanni Atzeni, Tittia. Not readable by any tool this site's editors run; relayed directly by the editor monitoring it.
• The career totals, the cappotto count and the two 2026 races are carried from this site's own fact-checked records for the Assunta result and the contrade, whose sourcing — La Nazione, Il Messaggero, and the Comune's own pages and Palio archive — is set out in full on those pages. The per-race albo is the Comune di Siena's, in its archive of recent Palios.

By the Siena & Toscana editors