Holidays in Rome

Rome recently beat out Venice for the chance to be Italy’s candidate city for the 2020 Olympics. On Wednesday, the announcement was released by the Italian Olympic Committee. The decision did not come as a complete surprise since Venice was viewed as having very little chance of actually winning the vote. The CONI will assign the 2020 Games host city in 2013.

CONI stated on Wednesday that Venice had simply not gained enough points to make it to the final voting stages. Rome, the Italian capital, won the vote unanimously. Rome matches Venice for its artistic beauty as well as its historical beauty and also offers the infrastructure and transportation links need for such an event. Rome also shows a strong track record for hosting major sporting events such as the 1960 Olympics and hosted a hugely successful showing of the World Swimming Championship just last year.

Sports facilities required by the Summer Olympic program are also no problem for Rome, since the Stadio Olimpico would need only slight upgrades in order to be ready for the event. Venice on the other hand, would have to completely start from scratch in building these needed structures. The logistical problems in organizing events in Venice are also said to have added to the vote for Rome. One of the largest problems seems to be that some of the events in the Venice dossier are accessible only by boat which would create massive problems for athletes as well as the public and the press.

These problems are likely why CONI was completely uninhibited by the strong support offered by the Northern League. Luca Zaia, the Northern League Governor of Venice’s region Veneto, was not happy with the vote and stated that he is considering challenging the decision. He told reporters “We are absolutely convinced that Venice’s bid was not given the right degree of consideration. We are sure that Venice, the universal capital of beauty, is our country’s best ambassador to the rest of the world. It should be clear that at the moment we don’t exclude the possibility of a formal move at other institutions.”

Also expressing an interest in hosting the 2020 Summer Olympic Games were Bari and Palermo although both failed to make CONI’s short list.