By Elvira Pollina and Keith Weir
VERONA, Italy, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Italy will bring down the curtain on two weeks of scintillating Olympic sporting action on Sunday with a closing ceremony in the ancient Verona Arena amphitheatre.
The show, scheduled for 8:30 p.m. (1930 GMT), is entitled “Beauty in Action” and will feature leading Italian ballet dancer Roberto Bolle and celebrate Italian art as well as sporting achievement.
The area around the 2,000-year-old Arena, in the heart of Verona, was cordoned off from early on Sunday, with entry limited to pass‑holders, residents or ticket‑holders for security reasons. Tourists were surprised to find access to the main Piazza Bra restricted.
Protesters opposed to staging the Games are expected to demonstrate in Verona on Sunday afternoon.
The ceremony is being held in an open-air Roman amphitheatre renowned for staging opera and pop concerts in the heart of the northern Italian city made famous as the setting for William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”.
ITALY TO CELEBRATE GAMES AND GOLD MEDALS
With the Olympic medals won and lost, the tone of the closing ceremony in the Arena is expected to be relaxed and free-wheeling. Italian singer Achille Lauro and DJ/producer Gabry Ponte will be there to get the party going and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will be among the crowd.
Tickets were priced from 950 euros ($1,120) to a top level of 2,900 euros. The weather has been kind, with no rain forecast.
The Games, co-hosted by Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, have been hailed a success by International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry, and the mood has been lifted by a record medal haul for the Italians.
“It’s the culmination of an extraordinary Olympics for the medal tally and for how the competitions unfolded, for the satisfaction of the athletes, the fans and the foreign federations,” said Damiano Tommasi, mayor of Verona, and a former Hellas Verona and AS Roma soccer player.
“The closing ceremony will also be a celebration for all the athletes taking part, who will have the chance to witness something unique, because the ceremony in the Arena will certainly be something unprecedented in Olympic history,” he told Reuters.
POSITIVE FEEDBACK
The Games have followed a new blueprint, with sporting events spread over a wide area of northern Italy. Feedback from athletes has been positive.
“I would say … to Italy, I think that they did an absolutely fantastic job hosting the Olympics,” said U.S. freestyle skier Christopher Lillis, praising the venues, the food and the friendly atmosphere.
Olympic cauldrons have burned in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo since the Games opened on February 6.
These will be extinguished on Sunday but reignited for the Paralympics which run from March 6-15.
The Italian hosts will formally hand over to the French Alps, the venue for the next Winter Games in 2030.
($1 = 0.8499 euros)
(Reporting by Keith Weir and Elvira Pollina; Additional reporting by Alvise Armellini in Livigno;Writing by Keith Weir;Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Ed Osmond)
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