Landmark sports facility to host volleyball and basketball once again.

Rome will reopen the Palazzetto dello Sport indoor arena in the Flaminio district on Sunday following extensive renovation works and a closure of five years.

Built for the 1960 Olympics, the iconic sporting facility has been unused since 2018 when it closed for repairs. It was subsequently abandoned, suffering damage from neglect and vandals.

The newly-restored Palazzetto dello Sport will come back to life this weekend, however, when it hosts the 2023-24 seasons of the Roma Volley Club and AS Luiss basketball teams.

The works carried out on the structure, whose landmark dome was designed by Pier Luigi Nervi, started during the adminstration of former mayor Virginia Raggi and finished under incumbent Roberto Gualtieri.

Il Palazzetto dello Sport di viale Tiziano tornerà ad ospitare i campioni dello sport capitolino.

A dare il via alla nuova stagione sportiva saranno le ragazze della @roma_volley e la squadra di basket della @UniLUISS.

Qui tutte le info https://t.co/cp3fMsRfKa pic.twitter.com/Qz0nzQuOv4

— Roma (@Roma) October 11, 2023

Rome tourism and sport councillor Alessandro Onorato, who presented the refurbished facility on Tuesday, told reporters that the city "inherited" a €3 million renovation contract with an expiry date of March 2022.

"We realised that the works would never be finished in time and that the money allocated was not enough", Onorato told news outlet RomaToday, with the city raising additional funds of €2 million to see the project through.

When it opens on Sunday, the Palazzetto will have 2,500 seats available for specators, rising to its full capacity of 3,500 seats when works finish definitively in December.

Onorato told newspaper Corriere della Sera that the city would now shift its focus to other unfinished projects, starting with the nearby Flaminio Stadium.