Intimissimi sparkles with ice-skating spectacular in Verona: https://www.you.co.uk/intimissimi-spark ... ar-verona/...
This year’s Intimissimi on Ice production was called ‘One Amazing Day’, and I was fortunate to join the many thousands of spectators embraced by Mr Veronesi’s hospitality. As the programme explained, ‘Every sunrise offers us the gift of a day with infinite possibilities, surprise encounters, unexpected adventures and new horizons.’ At the heart of the show was a love story between two people whose paths cross by chance, but can only be brought together when the stars align and fate takes a hand. ‘We’ll see that the enchantment of life can be found by venturing forward; however, the real magic of life is found with your true love.’ Is Mr Veronesi an incurable romantic? I think it’s safe to say he is.
The show took the form of a series of scenes, ranging from early morning with illuminated snowflakes whizzing around the ice. This segued to colourful spring flowers, New York in the rain with office workers flying around the ice carrying umbrellas, and our heroine waking in her bedroom and performing a spectacular solo. The show took in the seasons from the warmth of summer to the frosty chill of winter with incredible scenery and costumes for each.
Occasionally, the audience would go wild and leap to their feet – as they did when the Russian skating superstar Plushenko (above) raced onto the ice, blond hair flying, for an eye-wateringly fast and difficult solo to a Michael Jackson number.The fast-changing scenes were set to music (a romp through Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Elvis Presley and The Beatles to Puccini, Mozart and Bizet) with a full orchestra and singers, a burst of opera (Carmen, in a lavish ballroom) some gospel music, and, to round off the evening the magnificent Andrea Bocelli (pictured above) raising the roof (if there was one) with a rousing rendition of Nessun Dorma. Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling was the sound track to the final number, by which time we were all stunned by the sound and visual gymnastics on ice we’d just been privileged to witness.
As the crowds dissipated into the clear Verona night, we could only think one thing: when the Italians do something, boy do they do it in style.