The town of Castel del Piano is in the province of Grosseto and it has been settled since the Neolithic. This ancient village, set at 637 m of altitude, has about 4000 inhabitants and here visitors can admire the church of San Niccolò and Santa Lucia, as well as the Palazzo Nerucci dating to the XIV century.

Since 890, Castel del Piano had been an estate of the Abbey of San Salvatore, that dominated the territory for four centuries at least. The documents of the time referred to it as "casale Plana".
In the XI century, the Aldobrandeschi could withdraw the Abbey to the nearby village of Montenero. One century later, this powerful Lombard-born family also established its presence in Castel del Piano. The family divided in 1274 and the territory, currently corresponding to the town, was destined to the branch of the Santa Fiora.
In 1331, the Santa Fiora ceded the village to the Republic of Siena that had annexed the Aldobrandeschi at the end of a long military campaign headed by the Sienese leader Guidoriccio da Fogliano. With the fall of Siena in 1559, the Medici instituted their authority on all the towns of the Grosseto's mountain that were included inside the Tuscan Grand Duchy. The town followed the destiny of the Grand Duchy until the Unity of Italy. During the Second World War, Castel del Piano was one of the first centres to organize a Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale.
Each year, this town recalls its medieval history with the "Palio delle Contrade di Castel del Piano", dedicated to the worship of the Madonna Santissima delle Grazie. The origins of this celebration date to the "Fiera di Merci e Bestiame" of the XV century, when, according to historians, the first horse races were held. Since 1431, it has also acquired a religious connotation. The legend tells that an intercession of the Virgin Mary saved four soldiers from Castel del Piano by warning them to abandon the battlefield before the enemies' arrival. Thus, they escaped and carried the sacred icon, that had talked to them, to the town.
The modern Palio was born in 1765 and it was first organized on the 7th of July, 1771, and it was interrupted in the XX century because of the world conflicts. After the Second World War, the horse races started again but it was only since 1967 that the division in quarters has been instituted (Borgo, Monumento, Poggio and Storte).
Nowadays, the Palio takes place on 8th September every year and it is preceded by a historical parade that evokes the events of the years between the XIV and the XV centuries.