Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics: Complete Guide to the Games in Italy

Milano Cortina 2026 runs from 6 to 22 February 2026. The opening ceremony is set for Milan's famous San Siro stadium (Stadio Giuseppe Meazza), while the closing ceremony takes place in the historic Arena di Verona, an ancient Roman amphitheatre. The Paralympic Winter Games follow shortly afterwards, from 6 to 15 March 2026.

Rather than being concentrated in a single city, the 2026 Games use existing venues spread across northern Italy. Ice sports are largely based in and around Milan, while snow and sliding events take place in the Alps and Dolomites, including Cortina d'Ampezzo, Bormio, Livigno, and the Val di Fiemme area.

The Games are organised into clusters. The Milan cluster hosts ice sports such as figure skating, short track, and ice hockey in the city's arenas. Cortina d'Ampezzo, a legendary Dolomites resort and the host of the 1956 Winter Olympics, stages women's alpine skiing, sliding sports such as bobsled, luge, and skeleton, and curling.

Bormio in Valtellina hosts the men's alpine speed events, Livigno is the freestyle skiing and snowboard park, and the Val di Fiemme area around Predazzo and Tesero hosts cross-country skiing, ski jumping, and Nordic combined. Biathlon takes place at Anterselva (Antholz) in South Tyrol. This distributed model uses established winter-sports towns rather than building large new complexes.

Milano Cortina 2026 features a full programme of Olympic winter disciplines, from headline events like alpine skiing, figure skating, and ice hockey to biathlon, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, speed skating, snowboarding, and the sliding sports. The Games also see ski mountaineering make its Olympic debut, adding a fast-growing endurance discipline to the schedule.

With events spread across so many venues, fans can build very different experiences: a city-based trip focused on the ice arenas around Milan, or a mountain holiday centred on the alpine and Nordic events in the Dolomites and Valtellina. Checking the competition schedule by sport and venue is the best way to plan which sessions to attend.

Tickets for Milano Cortina 2026 are sold through the official Olympic ticketing platform, typically released in phases with prices that depend on the sport, the session, and the stage of competition. Early-round sessions and some qualifying events tend to be the most affordable, while finals, marquee events, and the ceremonies command the highest prices.

Because Olympic demand is intense and inventory is limited, register on the official channels, follow the published sales phases, and buy only from authorised sources to avoid resale fraud. If you plan to attend across several venues, remember that travel time between mountain clusters can be significant, so build realistic gaps into your schedule.

Milan is served by major international airports, principally Malpensa, Linate, and nearby Bergamo, and is a central hub on Italy's high-speed rail network, making it easy to reach from across Europe. The city connects to Verona and other host areas by fast trains, while the mountain venues are reached by a combination of rail, road, and shuttle services.

For the alpine and Nordic venues, base yourself in or near resort towns such as Cortina d'Ampezzo, Bormio, or Livigno, and expect winter driving conditions if you travel by car. During the Games, organised transport links the venue clusters, but the distances involved mean careful planning is essential, especially if you want to combine mountain competitions with events in Milan.

A trip to Milano Cortina 2026 is also a chance to experience some of Italy's most striking regions in winter. Milan offers world-class art, design, shopping, and cuisine, from the Duomo and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II to its celebrated aperitivo culture. Cortina d'Ampezzo and the surrounding Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage landscape, deliver dramatic mountain scenery, skiing, and cosy alpine hospitality.

Verona, host of the closing ceremony, adds Roman history and Renaissance charm, while the wider regions of Lombardy, Veneto, and Trentino-Alto Adige are dotted with historic towns, lakes, and mountain villages. Combining the Olympics with a few days of exploring turns the trip into a memorable Italian winter journey.

Milano Cortina 2026 is a milestone for Italy and for the Olympic movement. It brings the Winter Games back to Italy two decades after Turin 2006, returns Olympic competition to historic Cortina d'Ampezzo, and pioneers a widely distributed hosting model that relies on existing venues across several regions rather than concentrated new construction.

For athletes it is a chance to compete on some of winter sport's most storied slopes and in the heart of one of Europe's great cities. For visitors it is an opportunity to witness the Olympics against the backdrop of the Italian Alps and Dolomites, making the 2026 Games one of the defining sporting events of the year.