Milano Cortina 2026: venues and destinations for the Winter Olympics

From Milan to Cortina, passing through Valtellina, Val di Fiemme, and Anterselva: a guide to the regions hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games

The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, scheduled from 6 to 22 February, followed by the Paralympics from 6 to 15 March, will be the most geographically expansive edition ever staged. Three Italian regions (Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino–Alto Adige) are involved, across seven host locations. The Opening Ceremony will take place at Milan’s iconic San Siro stadium, while the Closing Ceremony will unfold against the theatrical backdrop of the Arena di Verona.

If these Games offer a once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness the world’s most eagerly awaited winter sporting event, they also present an irresistible invitation to discover—or rediscover—destinations of exceptional allure. What follows is a guide to the dates not to be missed and the places that will define the experience.

Milano

Milan is the city of ice, home to all indoor competitions and to medal dreams in ice hockey, short track and figure skating. The short-track highlights arrive between 12 and 14 February with the women’s headline events; figure skating crowns its champions on 11 February with the free dance and on 16 February with the pairs competition. The Unipol Forum in Assago becomes the Skating Arena, while four pavilions of the Rho exhibition grounds form the Ice Park, housing the new Hockey Arena. Porta Romana, meanwhile, hosts the Olympic Village.

Bormio (Valtellina)

Alpine skiing has always been the premier attraction of the Winter Olympics, and on 7 February the men’s event takes place here. Bormio returns to the spotlight from 19 to 22 February for ski mountaineering—a fashinating blend of off-piste descent and uphill skinning—which makes its Olympic debut with both individual and team races. Beyond competition, Bormio is renowned for its thermal waters, with three celebrated spa complexes—Bormio Terme, Bagni Nuovi and Bagni Vecchi—set against an Alpine panorama that once enchanted Leonardo da Vinci for its therapeutic virtues. From here, the emotional radar can extend to nearby Santa Caterina Valfurva, where one of the season’s novelties is the opening of a new four-seater chairlift.

Livigno (Valtellina)

Cross the Passo del Foscagno and Livigno reveals itself: 115 kilometres of downhill slopes and 30 kilometres of cross-country tracks, evenly divided between the Mottolino side of the valley and the opposite Carosello 3000, both easily reached from the village. At 1,816 metres above sea level, on the border and within the Stelvio National Park, it is the highest Olympic venue of them all. Livigno hosts all competitions in the youngest Olympic winter disciplines—freestyle skiing and snowboarding—staged in the new Mottolino snowpark, now even more accessible thanks to the new Mottolino gondola lift and the Monte Sponda chairlift, Lombardy’s first eight-seater. Winter in Livigno offers far more than skiing: snowshoeing in the wild Val Federia, horse riding through the snow-covered valley floor, winter paragliding, and ice climbing all beckon.

Cortina d’Ampezzo

A couple of mountain passes later, one arrives at the pearl of the Dolomites: Cortina d’Ampezzo, already host of the Winter Olympics in 1956. Beneath the Tofane peaks and within the legendary Schuss, the women’s alpine skiers compete on 8 February. Curling also takes centre stage here, with the final scheduled for 10 February at the Curling Olympic Stadium. Cortina further stages the adrenaline-fuelled descents of bobsleigh, skeleton and luge along the new ice track of the Sliding Centre, built in record time. Remember, however, that you are in the most glamorous address in the Alps, famed for high-end shopping beloved by an international luxury clientele—and, not least, for exceptional dining, from refined restaurants in town to legendary mountain refuges.

Val di Fiemme (Trentino Alto-Adige)

It may be called Milano Cortina, but between the lines one also reads Trentino. In Val di Fiemme, dominated by the eastern Dolomites, medals are awarded at opposite ends of the sporting spectrum. There are the lofty feats of ski jumping and Nordic combined—jump plus cross-country—scheduled at the brand-new Predazzo ski jumps, and the more earthbound endurance battles of cross-country skiing, held at the renovated Tesero Lake Stadium near Cavalese.

Anterselva (Trentino Alto-Adige)

Finally, the peaks of the Val Pusteria provide the setting for one of the most elemental and foundational Winter Olympic disciplines: biathlon, where skiing meets marksmanship. To watch the athletes in action, one must travel to the Italian cradle of the sport, Anterselva, long a proving ground for national ambitions. While the biathlon stadium reverberates with applause, there is also time for quieter pleasures: a silent circuit of Lake Anterselva, perhaps extending as far as Lake Braies, to find it—if only for a day—momentarily reclaimed from the crowds gathered around the Olympic arena.