Exactly one year before it starts, Turin 2006 unveiled the details of its torch relay, which will pass by the Leaning Tower of Pisa, go up Venice’s Grand Canal, and will cover every province in Italy.
It was announced that Stefano Baldini, the Italian who won the men’s marathon at the Athens 2004 Summer Games, will be the first torchbearer.
Following the customary lighting of the flame in Ancient Olympia, Greece on December 7, 2005, Baldini will run the first 400 yards in Rome the next day.
There will be 10,000 torchbearers in the relay, which will last 64 days and cover nearly 7,000 miles.
After leaving Rome, it will pass through Florence, Genoa, Sardinia, Sicily, Naples, Bologna, Venice and Milan before arriving in the Turin area a week before the Games begin.
On January 26, 2006, the torch will return to Cortina d’Ampezzo for the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Winter Games held there.
