Olympic flame begins its journey to Milan Cortina Winter Olympics

High Priestess Mary Mina, left, lights a torch from the Olympic flame during the flame lighting ceremony for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, at the archaeological museum of Olympia, Greece, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. “Over the next few weeks, the Olympic flame will pass through all the Italian provinces, 60 cities, 300 towns, 20 regions and all the UNESCO sites. Artemis Ignatiou, the ceremony’s artistic director, said the team had prepared for the possibility of bad weather and that, despite the setback, “we gained something special: the energy of the museum and the archaeological space itself.”