After 50 years in the UAE, Anna reflects on designing Mercato Mall, her love for batik art, and why she calls the country home.
Dubai: When Annamaria “Anna” Amarante Damiani landed in the UAE on 29 June 1976, the welcome was far from smooth.
The summer heat was overwhelming, and her luggage never arrived, having been lost in transit through Beirut. It took three months before her suitcases were finally returned.
For many, it might have been an inauspicious beginning. For Anna, it was the start of a lifelong relationship with a country she now calls home.
“I fell in love with this place as soon as I arrived, although it was not easy,” she recalls.
Now 80, after nearly five decades in the Emirates, she says simply: “This is my country.”
A New Life Begins in Sharjah
Although proudly Italian, Anna was born in Eritrea, where she spent much of her childhood before political changes forced her family to relocate.
After a brief period in Italy, she, her husband Agostino Damiani, and their four-year-old daughter Antonella moved to Sharjah in search of new opportunities.
Her husband initially worked as a businessman before serving for six years as the Honorary Italian Consul, at a time when Italy did not yet have an official consulate in the UAE.
The family quickly embraced life in the Emirates. Tennis became Anna’s passion, her daughter took up horse riding, and her husband developed a love for diving.
But what made them stay was something much simpler.
“The main thing is safety, protection. You feel protected,” she says.
“It’s a very good life, a little bit like the life we had in Africa. That’s why I’m very attached to it.”
The Woman Behind Mercato Mall
Although she always dreamed of working in fashion, family expectations meant Anna postponed her creative ambitions.
Only after her daughter had grown older did she begin a career in interior design, a profession she would continue for decades.
Her philosophy has always been straightforward.
“Interior design is not only the ideas of a designer; it’s the ideas of the client that we have to work on to enhance, to beautify, and to make it practical.”
Among her many projects, one stands above the rest.
Anna and her team designed and built Mercato Mall, the Florence-inspired shopping destination on Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach Road, known for its Renaissance architecture, Tuscan-inspired interiors, and charming European streetscape.
Even today, it remains one of Dubai’s most distinctive shopping centres.
A Night She Will Never Forget
Anna vividly remembers the mall’s inauguration in 2002.
As guests gathered outside the darkened building, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, arrived to officially open the mall.
The moment he cut the ceremonial ribbon, the entire building lit up.
The Italian national anthem filled the air, followed immediately by the UAE national anthem.
“It was so emotional,” Anna says.
“I had tears in my eyes to see how welcome a piece of Italy was in this country.”
The Desert Rescue That Restored Her Faith
While Mercato Mall remains her proudest professional achievement, one of Anna’s most treasured memories has nothing to do with architecture.
Around 35 years ago, while driving her 13-year-old daughter to horse-riding lessons, she accidentally drove off the end of a road and became trapped in deep desert sand.
With no mobile phones, no nearby buildings, and the intense desert heat closing in, the situation quickly became frightening.
Then, in the distance, she spotted three men approaching on camels.
Unsure what would happen, she explained that her car was stuck.
“Their response was simply, ‘Mafi mushkila, mafi mushkila’ – no problem, no problem.”
Using ropes attached to the camels, the three men patiently pulled the stranded vehicle back onto solid ground before quietly continuing on their journey.
“They didn’t ask for anything,” Anna remembers.
“I don’t think this would ever happen anywhere. I’ll never forget it.”
A Passion for Batik Art
Beyond architecture, Anna has spent decades creating intricate batik artwork, a traditional wax-resist dyeing technique she discovered through a friend named Rekha, the wife of a Hilton hotel manager.
She was immediately captivated by the unpredictable nature of the art form.
“At the end you don’t know what is coming out, because it’s all a big mass of wax and colours,” she explains.
Only after the wax is carefully removed does the final artwork emerge.
Her paintings capture scenes from old Sharjah, Bastakiya, mosques, falcons, beaches, and African landscapes, many of which decorate the walls of her Sharjah home.
She even exhibited her work years ago at the former Jumeirah Art Centre.
Tennis, Trophies and Lifelong Friendships
Anna also fulfilled another childhood dream after moving to the UAE: learning to play tennis.
Unable to receive formal lessons as a young girl, she taught herself by repeatedly hitting a ball against a wall.
In the UAE, she finally joined tennis clubs and competed in tournaments despite the intense summer heat.
“We would jump in the swimming pool with the shoes, with a racket, with everything,” she laughs while recalling post-match celebrations.
Over the years, she collected numerous trophies and formed lifelong friendships, including with one player who later became a senior official at Wimbledon.
Telling the Story of the UAE
Today, Anna is writing a book about her extraordinary journey.
She hopes to work with a UAE-based writer so the story reflects the country she has known for nearly half a century.
For her, the UAE is far more than its skyscrapers and luxury lifestyle.
She wants readers to understand the country’s deeper values of kindness, respect, safety, and community.
“I do love the UAE,” she says.
From a misplaced suitcase in 1976 to designing one of Dubai’s most iconic shopping malls, Anna Damiani’s story mirrors the remarkable transformation of the Emirates itself, a place she no longer sees as somewhere she moved to, but somewhere she belongs.
Source: Gulf News
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