On the night of May 20, the balcony of the Alighieri Theatre will be lit up to celebrate the race
The Giro, it does not need reminding, is not only a race: a competition but also a route, history writing itself since 1909, a journey through the most beautiful and passionate Italy. It is a sport fact, but also a cultural and social one; a sentimental fact, like that 90-year-old pink of the ‘maglia rosa’ that will paint, on May 20, the Alighieri Theatre in Ravenna. In the year of the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, Ravenna has been chosen as the starting point of the Dante-dedicated stage of the Giro d’Italia, headed to Verona. And while the Tomb of Dante was lit up in the occasion of the announcement of the 2021 stages, one month before the Giro begins, the night before the start of the 13th stage – scheduled for May 21 – the Theatre named after the Poet will be lit up from evening till dawn, washing in pink light the balcony on the façade.
The new illumination of the Theatre – a project curated and realised by Quick Lighting and inaugurated a few months ago – is destined to become the distinctive feature of the Alighieri when it hosts an event; but the Giro is too precious and meaningful a chance not to make an exception and wear pink. Not only because this year the historical sport event is also a wish that Italy could soon “get back in the saddle”, but also to celebrate once again, under a different light, Dante’s great legacy, a world heritage that keeps talking to us all, and from which the Ravenna Festival’s next edition will draw inspiration, with the premieres of new works and special events.