Olympic flame for 2026 Milan-Cortina Games will go on 63-day trek across Italy

The Olympic flame for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games will pass through all 110 provinces in Italy on a 63-day journey before the cauldron is lit.

Organizers announced the route for the torch relay on Tuesday at a palace facing the historic Verona Arena, the large Roman amphitheatre that will host the closing ceremony of the 2026 Winter Games as well as the opening of the Paralympics.

The presentation of the 12,000-kilometre route took place exactly a year before the flame will be lit in Ancient Olympia, Greece.

"The Olympic torch relay is the moment when the Games enter peoples' homes, spreading the magic of winter sports across Italy," Milan-Cortina CEO Andrea Varnier said.

"This is very important. it's the only project that literally takes the Olympics in front of millions of people's houses."

The flame will arrive in Rome on Dec. 4 and will begin its journey across Italy two days later.

A total of 10,001 people will participate in the torch relay. The flame will travel through Tuscany before going across to the islands of Sardinia and then Sicily, by sea, and returning to the Italian mainland on Dec. 19.

The torch relay, which includes 60 city celebrations, will be in Naples for Christmas and in Bari for New Year's Eve. It will then travel up the eastern side of Italy and across to the north-west, reaching Torino, site of Italy's last Olympic Games in 2006, on Jan 11.

While it is in Piedmont, there will be a tribute to Italian skier Matilde Lorenzi, who died last month at the age of 19 following a crash in training.

"There will be something to honour her I promise, also because it was her dream to participate in these Olympics," said Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Malagò, who also leads the organizing