VERONA, Italy (AP) 鈥� A city forever associated with Romeo and Juliet, Verona will host the final act of the on Sunday inside the ancient , where some 1,500 athletes will celebrate their feats against a backdrop of Italian music and dance.
Acclaimed ballet dancer Roberto Bolle has been rehearsing inside the Arena di Verona this week under a veil of secrecy, along with some 350 volunteers, for a spectacle titled 鈥淏eauty in Motion,” which frames beauty as something inherently dynamic.
鈥淏eauty cannot be fixed in time. This ancient monument is beautiful if it is alive, if it continues to change,鈥� said the ceremony’s producer, Alfredo Accatino. 鈥淭his is what we want to narrate: An Italy that is changing, and also the beauty of movement, the beauty of sport and the beauty of nature.”
Other headlining Italian artists include singer Achille Lauro and DJ Gabry Ponte, whose hits could be heard blasting from the Arena during rehearsals this week.
Promise of a 鈥榖eautiful鈥� ceremony
Inside a tent serving as a dressing room, seamstresses put the finishing touches on costumes inspired by the opera world as volunteers prepped for the stage.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really special to be inside the Arena,” said Matilde Ricchiuto, a student from a local dance school. “Usually, I am there as a spectator and now I get to be a star, I would say. I feel super special.鈥�
The Arena has been a venue for popular entertainment since it was first built in A.D. 1, predating the larger Roman Colosseum by decades. Accatino said the ancient monument will produce some surprises from within its vast tunnels.
鈥淯nder the Arena there is a mysterious world that hides everything that has happened. At a certain point, this world will come out,” Accatino said, promising 鈥渟omething very beautiful.”
The ceremony will open with athletes parading triumphantly through Piazza Bra into the Arena, which once served as a stage for gladiator fights and hunts for exotic beasts.
A reminder of climate change
The closing ceremony stage was inspired by a drop of water, meant to symbolically unite the Olympic mountain venues with the Po River Valley, where Milan and Verona are located, while serving as a reminder that the Winter Games are by climate change.
While the opening ceremony was held in Milan, the other host city, Cortina d鈥橝mpezzo, nestled in the Dolomite mountains, was considered too small and remote to host the closing ceremony. Verona, in the same Veneto region as Cortina, was chosen for its unique venue and relatively central location, said Maria Laura Iascone, the local organizing committee’s head of ceremonies.
鈥淥nly Italians can use such monuments to do special events, so this is very unique, very rare,” Iascone said of the Arena.
She promised a more intimate evening than the opening ceremony in Milan’s San Siro soccer stadium, with about 12,000 people attending the closing compared with more than 60,000 for the opening.
Iascone said about 1,500 of the nearly 3,000 athletes participating in the most spread-out Winter Games in Olympic history are expected to drive a little over an hour from Milan and between two and four hours from the six mountain venues.
Italy on Thursday named gold-medal winners Lisa Vittozzi and Davide Ghiotti to carry the Italian flag at the closing ceremony, bringing up the rear of the 92 nations.
Vittozzi took home Italy鈥檚 first individual gold medal in biathlon and won, coming back from an injury that sidelined her for all of last season. Ghiotti, from Veneto city in Vicenza, won the men鈥檚 pursuit speed skating gold medal along with Andrea Giovannini and Michele Malfatti, beating the U.S. world record-holders and favorites.
Handing over to France
One of the key moments of the ceremony is when the Olympic flag is handed over to the next Winter Games host nation, France. The French flag will then be raised next to Italy鈥檚.
The ceremony will close with the Olympic flames being extinguished in Milan and Cortina, to be viewed via video link. A light show will substitute fireworks, which are not allowed in Verona
The Verona Arena will also be the venue for the Paralympic opening ceremony on March 6. For the ceremonies, the ancient with new wheelchair ramps and accessible restrooms along with other safety upgrades. The six Paralympic events will be held in Milan and Cortina until March 15.
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