(Il testo seguente è tratto integralmente dalla nota stampa inviata all’Agenzia Opinione) –
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**VERONA PREPARES FOR THE GAMES’ GRAND FINALE BY CELEBRATING CULTURE**
**In a few days, the Arena will host the spectacular Closing Ceremony of Milano Cortina 2026. In anticipation of 22 February, the city of Verona comes alive with the Cultural Olympiad Programme.**
Milan, 18 February 2026 – Verona’s cultural programming aligns seamlessly with the concept of the Olympic Games Closing Ceremony, “Beauty in Action,” which the city will host on Sunday 22 February. While the Ceremony celebrates beauty as a living energy, capable of generating movement, connection, and future, the Cultural Olympiad extends this vision throughout the urban landscape. The “Culture in Movement” is, in fact, the guiding principle of the initiatives spread across the area, transforming the city into a laboratory of creativity, participation, and dialogue.
One of the world’s most iconic monuments, the Arena, a UNESCO World Heritage site, demonstrates how culture can be an active driver of the Games, amplifying their meaning and engaging diverse audiences in a shared experience. In Verona, beauty is not just a heritage to be preserved, but becomes a collective action expressed through exhibitions, installations, music, poetry, and inclusive projects.
**Hidden Glaciers. Life in Ice Caves**
Verona Natural History Museum, 29 January 29 to 12 April 2026. Curated by Leonardo Latella and Roberta Salmaso, the exhibition highlights one of the most fragile and least-known ecosystems: the underground glaciers of the Venetian Prealps. Through 20 photographs by Daniele Sighel, videos, models, and scientific materials, the exhibition presents the results of the first comprehensive biological research in Italy dedicated to ice caves. As highlighted by the Museum: “The ice deposits… risk disappearing completely within a few years, with the irreparable loss of historical data on the climate and life they support.”
**A Life for Sport. Faces and Achievements of the #100Experts**
Porta Borsari, 4 February to 15 March 2026. Presented by Fondazione Bracco, this photography exhibition, held in the heart of the city, celebrates 22 female leading figures in sport, including Kirsty Coventry, President of the International Olympic Committee. The initiative is part of a broader research project dedicated to equality, equity, and representation in television coverage during the Games. The initiative aims to “contribute to a clear and informed view of the extraordinary contribution of women to the world of sport.” Through portraits by photographer Gerald Bruneau, the exhibition offers an open-air visual journey that celebrates the talent, determination, and successes of athletes, managers, and professionals, recounting their stories, achievements, and values.
**Antonio Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade**
Teatro Ristori, 19 February to 1 March 2026. Fondazione Arena presents Vivaldi’s opera L’Olimpiade in Verona for the first time, in an internationally renowned production. Written for Venice in 1734 and forgotten for over two hundred years, Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade was performed in the acclaimed and captivating Parisian production at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées during the 2023-2024 season. Four opera evenings, a preview for schools, in-depth discussions, and a film screening creating a dialogue between music, cinema, and sports. The project was conceived to foster “a connection between art, understood as opera and cinema, and sport” during the Olympic weeks.
**Winter Games! Winter sports. Photographs from the LIFE Archives 1936–1972**
International Center of Photography, Scavi Scaligeri, 20 February 20 to 2 June 2026. After a ten-year closure, Scavi Scaligeri reopens with a major exhibition dedicated to winter sports through the iconic images of LIFE magazine. More than one hundred photographs, many previously unpublished, recount nearly forty years of history, from the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Olympics to the 1972 Sapporo Olympics, including Cortina. The images convey “sport as a shared experience, a spectacle, a collective ritual, and a powerful mirror of its time.”
**”Squarci di Bellezza” – Glimpses of Beauty. Light and Poetry as a Shared Cultural Experience**
Capitular Library, 28 February 2026. This project stems from a simple and powerful idea: poetry as a “luminous glimpse in the present,” capable of revealing meaning in a time marked by uncertainty and fragmentation. As the Academy’s document states: “Squarci di Bellezza stems from this vision: poetry as a necessary act, as a possibility of meaning”. International artist Marco Nereo Rotelli, known for his work with light and words, has created a site-specific installation engaging with verses by Davide Rondoni. The result is a plural poetic landscape, inhabited by different voices yet united by a common urgency: to restore depth to our gaze and create community through words.
**The Roman Theater for Everyone**
Archaeological Museum at the Teatro Romano, 28 February to 20 March 2026. On the occasion of the Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies, the Civic Museums of Verona, in collaboration with the Oltre Magy’s Association, present a new accessible guided tour of the Roman Theater. The initiative highlights the Arena and it Roman heritage, offering an inclusive and accessible experience for all audiences. The project includes five guided tours using Augmentative and Alternative Communication symbols, each preceded by a workshop held in the accessible classrooms of Palazzo Fontana. Visitors will also have access to dedicated CAA booklet and audio tracks in Italian, English, French and German, accessible via QR code.
**Beyond Barrier**
Piazza Bra, from 6 February 2026. An urban installation dedicated to accessibility and the removal of barriers, in dialogue with the inclusive values of the Paralympic Games.
**A cultural mosaic accompanying the Games**
Verona’s Cultural Olympiad initiatives create a rich and transversal mosaic, bringing together scientific research, visual arts, music, poetry, photography, and inclusion. A journey that enhances the city’s heritage while reinforcing its role in the broader cultural narrative of the Milano Cortina 2026.
**The Cultural Olympiad strengthens the connection between history, community, and international vision**
Domenico De Maio, Education and Cultural Programme Director of Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026, commented: “In recent weeks, Verona has made an essential contribution to the Games, showcasing its extraordinary artistic and cultural heritage. In a city home to one of the world’s most iconic monuments, recognized by UNESCO, the Cultural Olympiad initiatives find a natural and powerful context. Verona demonstrates how culture can be an integral part of the Olympic experience, strengthening the connection between history, community, and international vision.”
**Verona, stage for a memorable event**
In its unique dialogue between history and modernity, Verona confirms itself as the ideal stage for the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. The Arena, a global symbol of Italian entertainment and culture, will host an event that promises to be memorable, bringing together artistic languages in a single, powerful narrative. On stage, leading figures from the national and international scene, including Roberto Bolle, Gabri Ponte, Achille Lauro, and Benedetta Porcaroli, will take the stage on 22 february, contributing to a ceremony that celebrates the energy of sport and the power of culture in an experience shared with millions of spectators.
The objective of Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026, in agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), the Italian Paralympic Committee (CIP), Città di Milano and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Regione Veneto and Regione Lombardia, Province autonome di Trento and Bolzano, is to plan, organise, finance and implement the Milano Cortina Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2026. Established on 9 December 2019, Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 is led by President Giovanni Malagò and CEO Andrea Varnier.
