Sanremo Casino: 120th Anniversary Events
From 14 to 18 January 2025, the Casino of the City of Flowers will celebrate its (first) 120 years of activity together with the schools, the Sanremo Symphony Orchestra – one of the most important cultural institutions of Matuzia – and local associations. The new year will therefore begin with the celebrations for the opening of its doors in 1905, when it took over the license from Villa la Sultana in Ospedaletti, the first gambling house in Italy, and became the favorite place of leisure for that Northern European nobility, who had chosen the Riviera Ligure di Ponente as a holiday and health destination.
For five days the Teatro dell'Opera will host – with free admission – events, conferences, concerts, shows, moments dedicated to dance, music, theatrical performances to actively involve residents and tourists in the important anniversary.
The program appears articulated and diversified as each territorial reality has chosen topics pertaining to the theme, but also to participate by expressing its own peculiarities. The result is an organic calendar, structured in a week of original events, which will also range from poetry to technology, from hospitality to food and wine.
The highlight is set for Saturday 18 January at 6.30 pm, when a ceremony will be held, enriched by the presence of the journalist and writer Antonio Caprarica , the essayist and writer Giuseppe Conte and by the concert of the Symphony Orchestra , which will perform, among others, the piece that accompanied the opening of the Municipal Casino on the evening of 14 January 1905 at 8 pm.
Below is the schedule of the celebrations.
Tuesday, January 14th
4pm: the Famija Sanremasca represented by president Leone Pippione will report on “Sanremo before the Casino” with specific readings;
5pm from the Moreschi historical archive: “A thousand shots for a thousand characters”.
Wednesday, January 15th
3pm “Technology and creativity” by the Colombo Institute of Sanremo;
5 pm “A Casino of Laughter”, theatre workshop of the Dante Alighieri middle school of the Sanremo Levante Comprehensive School, directed by Prof. Laura Occhialini assisted by Beatrice Bongiovanni.
Thursday, January 16
4pm GD Cassini High School: “Poker of aces and a heart”;
at 6 pm the essayist and botanist Claudio Littardi of the Association “Amici dei Giardini di Villa Ormond” will illustrate “The arboreal heritage of the Belle Époque in Sanremo”;
at 9pm the Teatro dell'Albero will stage “Sincerely Liars” by Alan Ayckbourn.
Friday 17th January
3.00 pm Fondazione Scuole Almerini: singing recital with elementary school children;
4pm: former president Giancarlo Rilla of Unitre Sanremo will present “The stolen palm. Sanremo and Bordighera and the dispute over the birthplace of Benedetto Bresca and the exclusive right to supply palms to the Vatican”;
5.00 pm Ruffini Aicardi Institute: “The flower diet and its tourist implications”;
8pm “Let's go happy birthday Casino”, fitness and dance on stage;
9pm concert by the Note Libere Youth Orchestra.
Saturday 18th January
6:30 pm ceremony for the 120th anniversary of the Sanremo Casino 1905-2025 with the overture of the Symphony Orchestra and speeches by Antonio Caprarica, Giuseppe Conte and Gian Carlo Ghinamo as president and CEO of the casino. This will be followed by the performance of the Symphony Orchestra entitled “Quel favoloso 14 gennaio 1905…”, a tribute to Antonio Vivaldi.
Finally, from January 14th to 18th, every evening from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm, the “Belle Époque Parade” by Freddy Colt’s band will take place from the Opera House to the outside in front of the famous steps of the Municipal Casino.