This town is called Sanremo.
Sanremo, is the home of one of the most long-lived Italian casinos, the Sanremo Casino.
In addition to the gaming tables, several events, parties and receptions were hosted inside this building, including the first Italian Song Festival from 1951 to 1976.
The Casinò Municipale di Sanremo is still a playhouse and it also offers guided tours that take visitors along the corridors and bright rooms to discover stories of luck, intrigue and news.
Inaugurated in 1905, the Sanremo Casino has been one of the city's greatest attractions for over a century. Famous for its shows, it was the first venue of the Italian Song Festival and, although it’s over a century old, it is an authentic architectural masterpiece, which blends the creativity of liberty style with the austerity of a neoclassical colonnade.
Originally, the casino remained open only during some months of the year, particularly in the Summer but, starting from the ‘20s and ‘30s, the casino was used also as a theater and even today every year the casino hosts concerts , dance parties, theatrical performances, shows and fundraising events.
The Belle Époque represented a period of splendor for Sanremo, which was chosen as a tourist destination by northern European nobles.
In the roaring ‘30s the city imposed itself on an international level because the fascist government, which had forbidden gambling, authorized the Municipality to practice it legally only in its Municipal Casino and nowhere else in the country.
The Second World War, however, was a tough time for the Casino and this temple of art and entertainment remained closed for a few years due to the damages it suffered but then, at the end of 1945, the Casino reopened its doors with a spectacular gala in the presence of great international celebrities.
In the ‘50s, Pier Busseti organized here the first edition of the Italian Song Festival and still to this day the festival is the most proud ambassador of the musical culture of our country.
When the Italian song festival was born, the city of Sanremo was still in bad shape from the war, with so many problems to face and solve. The Municipal Theater had been destroyed by the bombings, the war had just ended, but there was the will to get out of the war and Sanremo was willing to take back its main role in tourism and floriculture.
In those years there was only the radio and popular songs became the symbol of our society. It is said that the festival was born almost casually, in general indifference but the public decreed its great success.
Thanks to the interest of some celebrities and of the manager of the Casino, the Sanremo Casino became the cradle and the house of Italian music until 1976, when the curtains opened on the stage of another Sanremo theater: the Ariston.
During the ‘90s they changed location once again and they introduced foreign artists, who came to the stage only as foreign guests but could not participate in the competition. The festival’s orchestra, composed of fifty-three elements, has always been playing live and it was introduced in those years.
For what it concerns the Casino, the ‘80s was a decade of great innovations, with the arrival of slot machines and a totally renewed look, the Sanremo gambling house, showed its determination to remain on the crest of the wave for a long time. Loved by tourists and visitors from all over the world, the Casino allows those who try their luck and those who, pushed by simple curiosity, cross the threshold of a psychedelic reality where fun, gambling and luxury are now walking hand in hand.
The Sanremo Casino is one of the few places in Italy where one can legally gamble
