How Italians gradually warmed to their Winter Olympics

With the atmosphere in Rome subdued as the Winter Olympics unfolded across northern Italy, travelling to the Games was not on Amity Neumeister's radar.

- By Angela Giuffrida

That was until the event entered its second week and, inspired by images of the Dolomites on TV, Italy racking up the medals and friends in Milan describing an energetic vibe, Neumeister, originally from the US, decided to join the action. “It was a late-night, last-minute crazy decision, completely unplanned,” she said.

Neumeister, who owns a yoga studio in Rome, snapped up tickets for figure skating, “because that has always been my favourite sport in the Olympics”. She grew up in the US’s Pacific northwest, “where Tonya Harding was a household name”.

If the streets in the Italian capital felt largely bereft of Olympics fever, the numbers told a different story. Neumeister was among the more than 1.27 million spectators who had bought tickets by the event’s midway point, filling venues to an average 85% of their available capacity.

For what has been the most geographically scattered Winter Olympics ever, that was no small feat. Held under the official banner of Milano Cortina, the Games stretched across 22,000 sq km, encompassing Alpine villages in Lombardy and Trentino-Alto Adige, before wrapping up with the closing ceremony in Verona. The vast footprint presented complex logistical challenges.