The festival's theme this year is "under the sea, " and the organizers planned nautical touches to the palace, such as an octopus ice sculpture and a throne shaped like a scallopshell.
The Nine embarked upon a programme of urban renewal, adorning their new cathedral, building the city's civic palace, the vast piazza that spreads like a scallopshell before it, and the palatial hospital that still functioned in recent times.
