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On the afternoon of Friday the 6th, the city of Milan was unusually quiet. Many locals had been told to work from home, leaving the streets uncharacteristically empty as the Olympic torch — designed by the Turin-based architect Carlo Ratti and inspired by Italy’s ever-changing landscapes and the hues of the sky — wound its way through the city before finally arriving at the Milano San Siro Olympic Stadium. By the time the flame entered the arena near the event's end, the 60,000-plus spectators had already witnessed a sweeping sequence of performances celebrating Italian culture and creativity.
Milano Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony
The Olympic rings come together for a fireworks display during the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at San Siro Stadium on February 06, 2026 in Milan, Italy
Reaching this moment required considerable logistical ambition. These Games will be the first in Olympic history not to take place in a single, localised location. Instead, competitions are spread across four main clusters in northern Italy, with two primary hubs in Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Veneto region and Milan, the capital of Lombardy. The San Siro celebration was, in fact, one of four concurrent events, also held in Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo. It was a complexity acknowledged by the president of the Organising Committee, Giovanni Malagò, who described the Games in his address to spectators and athletes as 'not without its difficulties' — a remark that appeared to allude to the construction delays and public backlash that had dominated headlines in the lead-up to the event.
Dancers from the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala
Cupid (Claudio Coviello) & Psyche (Antonella Albano) perform a tribute to Italian beauty
Any organisational missteps were quickly forgotten once creative director Marco Balich sent La Scala’s famed dancers prancing onto the stage. Choreographed by the Riva & Repele dance company to evoke the fluid, dynamic movements of winter sports, the performers wore flowing white costumes designed by Massimo Cantini Parrini. Their silhouettes echoed the oversized drapery of sculptures by the Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova, which had been installed across what is usually a football pitch.
As swiftly as they appeared, the mood shifted from classical abstraction to a celebration of Milan’s musical heritage. A new troupe of dancers clad in bodysuits shaped like musical notes followed the Italian actress Matilda De Angelis — brandishing a conductor’s baton — into centre stage. Providing comic relief, three performers with enlarged, bobble-head-style masks in the likeness of Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and Gioacchino Rossini whipped up the crowd, while also serving a practical purpose: distracting the cameras as sets and backdrops were changed around them.
These musical interludes gave way to a tribute to Milan’s artistic culture, as giant paint tubes spilled billowing lengths of fabric across the stage. Dancers were painted in bold, punchy shades of fuchsia, yellow, red and blue, and wore costumes nodding to the city’s icons — including several performers disguised as human-sized Bialetti coffee makers, shuffling playfully across the floor.
Vittoria Ceretti, flagbearer for Milano, carries the Italian flag
The pageantry then made room for the evening’s most anticipated international guest: Mariah Carey, decked out in rhinestones and ostrich feathers. The pop star performed a bilingual medley, moving from Domenico Modugno’s Nel blu, dipinto di blu to her own song Nothing Is Impossible, complete with glass-shattering whistle notes (and a phonetic teleprompter that quickly went viral online). Her appearance segued into the flag protocol, staged as a stylised runway featuring models in Giorgio Armani-designed suits, alongside a brief tribute to the recently departed designer. Model Vittoria Ceretti followed the group carrying the Italian flag, which was raised simultaneously across the Games’ dispersed locations.
Ghali performs Promemoria (Memorandum) by Italian poet Gianni Rodari
After athletes from all 92 participating countries marched behind their flags, several theatrical sequences followed, including a playful homage to Italian hand gestures starring actress Brenda Lodigiani, and a medley celebrating Winter Olympics past, led by The White Lotus star Sabrina Impacciatore.
The ceremony’s closing performances were perhaps its most moving. Dedicated to peace, the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli delivered a solemn rendition of Puccini’s Nessun Dorma, followed by the Italian rapper Ghali, who — accompanied by a dance troupe comprised of children and teenagers — recited a poem by Gianni Rodari about resisting the madness of war. Not coincidentally, his words were directed towards the stands occupied by dignitaries and visiting heads of state. The actress Charlize Theron, a UN Peace Ambassador, then took to the stage to deliver a similar message inspired by the words of Nelson Mandela.
A pyrotechnic display takes place as torchbearers Deborah Compagnoni and Alberto Tomba light the Olympic cauldron at Piazza Dibona, Milan
The ceremony culminated with the lighting of the Olympic cauldrons — plural, for the first time — as twin structures were unveiled simultaneously at Milan’s Arco della Pace and in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Created by Marco Balich, their intricate design pays homage to Leonardo da Vinci, who lived and worked in Milan for several decades, referencing the complex knot geometries that recur throughout his work. Rooted in Italian history yet resolutely forward-looking, the cauldrons will remain accessible to the public, allowing the ritual of the flame to be witnessed each evening throughout the Games.