The Olympic flame for the 2026 Winter Games, commonly known as the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympic Winter Games, arrived in Rome, Italy on Thursday afternoon, marking the start of a series of torch relay events.
Protected in a lantern, the flame landed at Rome's Fiumicino Airport around 17:00 local time, and was carried off the airplane by Italian Olympic tennis champion Jasmine Paolini and Giovanni Malago, president of the Milan-Cortina 2026 organizing committee.
At around 19:00 local time, Italian President Sergio Mattarella received the flame at the Quirinale Palace, marking the beginning of the ceremonies leading to the official start of the flame journey on Saturday.
The flame will stay at the palace until an official lighting ceremony on Friday morning, when the cauldron will be lit in the presence of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry.
The start of the torch relay is scheduled to take place on Saturday morning at Rome's Stadio dei Marmi. Afterward, the relay will traverse 12,000 kilometers over 60 days across Italy, pass through more than 300 municipalities and feature celebrations in 60 cities, reach all 110 Italian provinces, and light up UNESCO sites along the route.
More than 10,000 torchbearers from all walks of life will take part in the relay, including figures from sectors of sports, culture, film and civil society.
The flame will see Christmas in Naples, New Year in Bari, and return to Cortina d'Ampezzo on January 26, 2026, the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Winter Games opening ceremony. The relay will conclude on February 6 at Milan's San Siro Stadium.
"Milan-Cortina is ready since the beginning of this journey, but at the same time, of course, these last two months, a little more than two months, are important for completing all the items of the organization, which I recognize is very complex, but this is a very feature, characteristic of our Games," said Malago earlier in the day at a Olympic flame handover ceremony in Athens, Greece.
The 2026 Winter Games will take place from February 6 to 22, 2026 in eight locations across northern Italy.
Olympic flame for 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Games arrives in Italy
Top political advisor Wang Huning has called for high-quality construction of the demonstration zone for integrated development across the Taiwan Strait and urged greater progress in advancing such integration during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).
Wang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, made the remarks on Saturday in Xiamen, a city in east China's Fujian Province, at a meeting on advancing the demonstration zone's development.
He said the 15th Five-Year Plan period will bring broad opportunities and prospects for deepening cross-Strait integrated development and for promoting the development of the demonstration zone.
Wang called for supporting Fujian in exploring new mechanisms, pathways and models for cross-Strait integrated development, and for promoting higher-quality, deeper and broader integration in cross-Strait integrated development.
He stressed the need to implement the requirements of the 15th Five-Year Plan in developing the demonstration zone and to ensure high-quality development throughout the process.
Focusing on key tasks in building the demonstration zone, efforts should be made to boost policy and institutional innovation, and to let the zone take the lead in piloting new measures and generating replicable experience, Wang said.
He also called for improving policies and measures to facilitate cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation, enhancing the business environment, strengthening industrial cooperation, and expanding the benefits and sense of gain for Taiwan compatriots and Taiwan-funded enterprises.
Wang urged closer people-to-people and cultural exchanges across the Strait, saying that more efforts should be made to strengthen Taiwan compatriots' sense of identification with the Chinese nation, Chinese culture and the motherland.
He also called for expanding channels for Taiwan youth to pursue development on the mainland.
On Sunday morning, Wang also conducted an inspection tour in Xiamen, reviewing work on cross-Strait integrated development, as well as the provision of more convenient and intelligent services for Taiwan compatriots, and efforts to promote exchanges and cooperation among young people from both sides of the Strait.
Top political advisor urges solid progress in cross-Strait integrated development
Top political advisor urges solid progress in cross-Strait integrated development
