Olympic flame for 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Games arrives in Italy

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

The Middle East conflict has imposed heavy economic costs on Europe, driving up energy prices and adding billions of euros to import bills, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

"Since the beginning of the conflict, gas prices have risen by 50 percent and oil prices by 27 percent," von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

She said 10 days of war had already cost European taxpayers an extra 3 billion euros (3.48 billion U.S. dollars) for fossil fuel imports.

Von der Leyen said the European Commission is assessing additional measures to lower energy bills, including a possible cap on gas prices.

She said the EU had diversified its fossil fuel supplies in recent years, but "this does not mean that we are immune to price shocks. Energy markets are global."

The surge marks the second time in recent years that geopolitical conflict has triggered sharp rises in EU energy costs, following the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022.

The commission is also pushing nuclear power to boost production and cut prices. Von der Leyen announced on Tuesday a 200 million euro (231.75 million dollar) EU guarantee to support private investment in innovative nuclear technologies.

EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen urged member states on Tuesday to cut energy taxes where possible, particularly on electricity, to lower consumer bills.

The commission on Tuesday also unveiled a Clean Energy Investment Strategy aimed at channeling private financing into power grids, clean energy technologies and energy efficiency.

Middle East conflict drives up energy costs: European Commission president