As of today, a further four cities in Italy have expressed their interest in bidding to host Eurovision 2022, bringing the total number of bidding cities up to ten.
Florence
The Mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, has expressed interest for his city to host Eurovision 2022. Speaking on Facebook, Dario has said “The city will try and host the Eurovision Song Contest, bringing Florence into contention with a number of cities across the country.” Florence has the Nelson Mandela Forum, which has a capacity of around 8,262.
Rimini
The city of Rimini, which sits on the Adriatic Coast, would be interested in hosting Eurovision 2022, according to Mayor, Andrea Gnassi. Speaking to San Marino RTV, Andrea has said: “The Rimini Fiera has shown in the past that it can organise concerts with at least 10 thousand people and is served by trains and shuttles, there is a huge accommodation and service capacity: all this, and more, makes our area one of those potentially capable of hosting Eurovision 2022, like few others in Italy.”
Sanremo
As well as hosting Festival di Sanremo, the Northern Italian city would also be interested in hosting Eurovision 2022. However, due to the city’s only venue, the Teatro Ariston, having a maximum capacity of 2,000 people, and there being a lack of suitable infrastructure in the city, it seems unlikely that Sanremo will be chosen as the host city.
But the Mayor of Sanremo, Alberto Biancheri, would still like the city of Sanremo to be involved with Eurovision 2022 in some way or another: “Sanremo and Eurovision are linked and I think it appropriate, as well as interesting, that the Sanremo Festival has its own “window” within the event. The formula? We will talk about it with the organizers and with Rai at the appropriate time. Participation, in any form, in Eurovision represents an opportunity that we do not want to waste, especially after the serious crisis that is affecting the city and the whole country.”
Verona Arena
Despite it being a Roman amphitheatre, the Artistic Director of the Verona Arena, Gianmarco Mazzi, has expressed his interest for the arena to be considered as a host venue for Eurovision 2022. Despite his concerns, the Mayor does seem somewhat optimistic: “Never say never in life, but I want to be honest, I think it will be very difficult. Eurovision foresees crazy structures that logistically do not reconcile with our amphitheatre, it takes months of work and above all they usually choose covered locations because otherwise in case of rain it would be a disaster. Fortunately for us we have a mayor who always pushes hard on the accelerator and does everything to bring the big events to Verona so I would never say never, but it will be very difficult to see Eurovision 2022 in the Arena.”
Will we be lost in Verona for Eurovision 2022? Or will another city win the hosting bid? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
