Milan Cortina 2026, Sergio Mattarella lights the Olympic brazier

President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella lit the Olympic brazier of the Milan Cortina 2026 Games in the Quirinal Square. From here the torch will leave for the long journey across the Italian peninsula, the torchbearer relay will touch, in 63 days of travel, 60 cities, covering 12 thousand kilometers and touching all 110 provinces of the Peninsula. II journey began on November 26, 2025 in Olympiato arrive yesterday in Rome. “The lighting of the Olympic Flame, which kicks off an enthralling journey through the Regions of Italy, not only indicates a great sporting event: it also holds, with well known, a high symbolic value and recalls principles, ideals that throughout history have maintained their character of universality”, said Mattarella.

Martino Davidi

“The Olympic Fire – continued the Head of State on the sidelines of the ceremony – reminds us that women and men can aspire to ever higher goals, that they are free and capable of progress, and that awareness of common destiny and common progress requires human fraternity, urges solidarity, demands that there be no overpowering, that all claims of superiority by ethnic origin, by religious belief, by social condition be banished. This message is relaunched every day by young people who play sports, by the varied universe of amateurs, by the true champions of every discipline”.

“Peace has been inscribed in the Olympic DNA since the earliest times. In ancient Greece, when competitions were held, as is well known, the guns stopped. Italy has asked that the Olympic truce be renewed, we hope that it is indeed possible, indeed we hope more: that the two months that separate us from the start of the games can bring détente and dialogue, stop aggression and barbarism, extinguish the wills of power that sow fear, death, devastation. In any case, the sign of peace of the Italian Olympics and Paralympics will be clear and visible at every latitude. It is our nature, our culture, our history” concluded Mattarella.

The Winter Olympic Games in Milan Cortina will be held from February 6 to 22. It will be the 25th edition of the White Games, the third on Italian soil after Cortina 1956 and Turin 2006.