Harmony lights up the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Photos from the Opening Ceremony.

Harmony. This is the key word that guided the creative concept of the Opening Ceremony of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, an evening that chose to tell the story of Italy through the ability to bring together different and seemingly distant elements: city and mountain, man and nature. For the first time, the Opening Ceremony came to life in a diffuse mode: Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Livigno and Predazzo were linked in real time in a single narrative, orchestrated as a great national symphony.

The evening opened with a tribute to beauty, understood as the beating heart of Italian identity. San Siro was lit up and transformed into a museum in motion, inspired by the art of Antonio Canova. Suspended thecae, seventy performers from the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala who, from motionless statues, came to life, transforming matter into dance. At center stage, Amore e Psiche. Body, art and technology merged in an experience that rewrote the concept of beauty in contemporary language.
Italian harmony continued in the tribute to the great masters of opera. Puccini, Verdi and Rossini were evoked as three excellences from different eras, united by a single cultural heritage, recalling how Italian opera has managed to cross time and cultures, remaining deeply rooted in the country’s identity and continuing to enchant the world.

Fantasia was then celebrated as the vital energy of Italian harmony. The ability to transform a few essential elements into an infinite universe of shapes, colors and languages took shape in a grand symbolic parade. A collective tale without boundaries or hierarchies, in which history, culture and creativity coexisted. From Ancient Rome to the Renaissance, from literature to cuisine, from fashion to design, from architecture to entertainment, Italy is revealed as a continuous laboratory of invention.

Then the solemn moment of theNational Anthem: at the San Siro Stadium performed by Laura Pausini, while in Cortina d’Ampezzo an evocative Mountain Choir, ideally uniting plains and peaks in a single sonorous embrace.

Timeless elegance had the face of Giorgio Armani. San Siro was dressed in green, white and red, with three catwalks and three groups of models paying homage to the designer. Armani’s creations transformed the Italian flag into living art, recounting a simple, essential and timeless style that has made Italian creativity famous worldwide.

The trip then literally became a journey through time. Reality and imagination met when Sabrina Impacciatore entered a time machine to retrace one hundred years of the Winter Olympic Games. History came to life on stage in a constantly moving musical: each decade became rhythm, color and symbol, transforming collective memory into spectacle and speaking to all generations.

The beating heart of the evening was the Parade of Athletes, also broadcast for the first time. The 92 delegations, starting from Greece and closing with Italy, paraded simultaneously between Milan, Livigno, Predazzo and Cortina, at the sites closest to their competition venues.

The Ceremony continued with institutional speeches by Giovanni Malagò, President of the Organizing Committee, Kirsty Coventry, President of the International Olympic Committee, and President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella who, from the grandstand, officially declared the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games officially open. The climax and final moment came with the lighting of the braziers, which took place simultaneously for the first time in the history of the Games. The Brazier at the Arch of Peace in Milan and the one in Angelo Dibona Square in Cortina were lit together, marking the conclusion of the Journey of the Olympic Flame after 63 days across Italy and, at the same time, the official start of the Games. The design of the braziers, inspired by the sun as the primary source of life, energy and renewal, recalls Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Nodes: geometric interweavings that symbolize the harmony between nature and human ingenuity and reinforce the link with Milan, a city that symbolizes creativity and innovation. Inside, the Olympic Flame is enclosed in a glass and metal container, with sustainable scenic effects designed to ensure maximum safety: no material fallout, low noise impact and minimal smoke emissions. Starting Feb. 7, the Brazier at the Arco della Pace in Milan will become the protagonist of a daily show open to citizens and visitors, lasting 3-5 minutes, at the stroke of every hour from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., until the Flame is extinguished on Feb. 22.

Harmony lights up the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Photos from the Opening Ceremony.

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