After a string of top-10 places since their return to the contest back in 2011 (2nd, 9th, 7th, 21st, 3rd, 16th, 6th, 5th, 2nd) Måneskin managed to finish the business Raphael Gualazzi, Nina Zilli, Marco Mengoni, Il Volo, Francesco Gabbani, Ermal Meta, Fabrizio Moro and Mahmood started nor forgetting Francesca Michielin and Emma. Now it's time to Rai to show what they can do and put the legend "Rai doesn't want to win" to rest for good.
Italy has hosted the contest twice before but that was a long time ago and a different concept. In 1965 Naples had the honors in Rai's tv-studios there, and in 1991 originally planned Sanremo changed to Cinecittá studios in Rome due to the Gulf war in the last minute that caused some hick ups to the Italian style already a bit confused organisation. But that was and this is now.
Back then it was much small event and could be held in a theater or big studio but not now. And here comes the problem with Italy: the lack of suitable, big enough venues and especially in places that fulfill Ebu's major requirements: easy access to international airport(s) and enough of hotel capacity. This is mind leaves us with only cities to choose from: Milan, Rome, Turin and Bologna.
Out of these Milan would be the obvious choice when it's also preparing to host the Winter Olympics in 2026 and both could benefit of this. Milan has all transport issues in order. Forum di Assago arena has a capacity of 12.700 and other halls next to it that could be used for press center etc . The only problem is the arena may not be high enough for modern Eurovision needs? Milan has also over 41.000 hotel rooms with about 77.000 beds, should be enough.
Rome being the huge touristic magnet it is has the transport and hotel rooms etc fixed. The arena Palazzetto dello Sport has a capacity of 10.500.
Torino has the arena, PalaAlpitour with 13.350 capacity and 18.000 hotel rooms with 38.000 beds that could be on a tight capacity plus the transportation isn't the most ideal one.
On the other hand all these cities Milan, Rome and Turin have Rai studios already so working from them could be a bit easier.
Last but not least we have Bologna with its Unipol Arena with 18.000 capacity. It's a bit far from the city, 12 kms, but the transportation is good. There might be some shortage of accomodation as the city has only 12.800 hotel rooms with about 24.000 beds.
All the other proposals don't meet the basic requirements by Ebu but as it is when a bid is launched everyone wants to shine and cities like Pesaro and Rimini come up with a bid knowing it will never happens. But hey, now every Eurovision fan knows Pesaro exists! Same goes for open air offerings from Reggio Emilia and likes of Sanremo (no venue) and Verona (open air in the Arena? I don't think so!). The first Italian host city Naples or Napoli has also willing to do it again, and downscale it Tel Aviv like affair.
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