BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA
In a city immortalized by Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, the final chapter of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will unfold Sunday night inside the ancient walls of the Arena di Verona, where sport, music and dance will converge in a celebration of athletic achievement and Italian artistry.
About 1,500 athletes are expected to gather beneath the Roman amphitheater’s arches for a closing ceremony titled “Beauty in Motion,” a production that organizers describe as a tribute to transformation — of sport, of culture and of Italy itself.
Acclaimed ballet star Roberto Bolle has spent the week rehearsing in near secrecy alongside roughly 350 volunteers. Producers have shielded many details from public view, but Alfredo Accatino, who is overseeing the ceremony, said the performance will reflect a simple idea: beauty is not static.
“Beauty cannot be fixed in time,” Accatino said during final preparations. “This ancient monument is beautiful if it is alive, if it continues to change. We want to tell the story of an Italy that is evolving — and of the beauty of movement, the beauty of sport and the beauty of nature.”
Joining Bolle on the program are singer Achille Lauro and DJ Gabry Ponte, whose music has echoed through the amphitheater during rehearsals, offering a modern soundtrack within a structure that predates Rome’s Colosseum.
Built in A.D. 1, the Arena has hosted spectacles for more than two millennia, from gladiator combat and exotic hunts to grand opera and contemporary concerts. On Sunday, it will provide an intimate but dramatic setting for the Games’ farewell — a contrast to the opening ceremony held weeks ago at Milan’s San Siro before more than 60,000 spectators.
Organizers expect around 12,000 people inside the Verona amphitheater, creating a more compact atmosphere for the final celebration. The evening will begin with athletes parading triumphantly through Piazza Bra and into the Arena, retracing steps once taken by Roman performers and fighters.
Behind the scenes this week, seamstresses worked inside temporary dressing tents, adjusting costumes inspired by Italy’s storied opera tradition. Volunteers rehearsed choreography on a stage shaped like a drop of water — a design meant to symbolize unity between the Alpine mountain venues and the Po River Valley cities of Milan and Verona.
The water motif also carries a deeper message. With Winter Games increasingly affected by shifting climate patterns and warmer temperatures, organizers say the imagery serves as a subtle reminder of the environmental challenges reshaping global sport.
While Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo shared hosting duties for these Olympics, Verona was selected for the closing ceremony in part because of its central location in the Veneto region and its singular venue. Cortina, nestled high in the Dolomites, was deemed too remote and compact to accommodate the logistical demands of the finale.
“Only Italians can use such monuments to stage special events,” said Maria Laura Iascone, head of ceremonies for the organizing committee. “It’s unique and very rare.”
Approximately half of the nearly 3,000 athletes who competed across the most geographically dispersed Winter Games in Olympic history are expected to attend the closing ceremony, traveling from Milan and the six mountain clusters to Verona.
Italy will be represented at the front of the parade by biathlete Lisa Vittozzi and speed skater Davide Ghiotto, chosen to carry the national flag. Vittozzi delivered Italy’s first individual gold medal in biathlon at these Games after returning from an injury that sidelined her last season. Ghiotto, a native of the Veneto city of Vicenza, captured gold in the men’s pursuit speed skating event alongside teammates Andrea Giovannini and Michele Malfatti, overcoming favored American competitors.
One of the ceremony’s most symbolic moments will come with the transfer of the Olympic flag to France, host of the next Winter Games. The French tricolor will rise beside Italy’s, marking the transition to a new chapter in the Olympic cycle.
As tradition dictates, the Olympic flames burning in Milan and Cortina will be extinguished to close the Games. Because fireworks are prohibited in Verona to protect local wildlife, a choreographed light show will illuminate the ancient stone instead.
The Arena’s role in the Olympic movement will continue beyond Sunday night. On March 6, it will host the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Winter Games. In preparation, the amphitheater has been retrofitted with wheelchair ramps, accessible restrooms and updated safety features. Paralympic competition will then unfold across Milan and Cortina through March 15.
For one evening, however, the spotlight returns to Verona — a city long associated with timeless romance — as it bids farewell to athletes whose performances have written a different kind of love story: one defined by perseverance, rivalry and the enduring beauty of motion.
Original article
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