And the winner is… Italy! Or better: Valtellina.
But wait, we did not win yet. Well, this is actually true, but let’s put it like that: in the last few hours, Sondrio has been feeling like a prize is already in the pocket. And not just any prize, but a really big one. A prize that involved and still means many political decisions, big budgets and a lot of efforts in the whole planning and management. But let’s go back a few hours to what happened last night.
June 24, 2019. The relatively small Piazza Garibaldi in Sondrio never felt that big and great. Yesterday evening, people coming from every corner of Valtellina, together with national and international tourists, decided to eventually happily crowd together in this adorable, picturesque square with Giuseppe Garibaldi’s statue protectively overlooking the historical centre of Sondrio.
Lately, Sondrio has not been hiding itself from expressing its will to put a big ‘Made in Italy’ stamp on Olympic Winter games, starting from mounting a huge cinema screen on this tiny slice of the city to watch the announcement. Standing in front of it, at 6 PM the crowd was announced live from Switzerland that Italy has been chosen as THE location to host the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in 2026.
The very second the International Olympic Committee spoke those magic words, countless faces quickly transitioned from suspense looks to manifestations of pure joy. We ourselves were part of this audience and we felt a very strong sporty vibe. That kind of unique vibe you only get when your national football team plays the World Cup’s final and wins, eventually. That kind of hot-blooded, stormy and even a bit overwhelming ambience you can only get attending a Serbian basketball match. You got the idea, right?
Italians were almost desperately waiting for good news. And there we are, stronger than ever! After having swollen such a bitter pill when Italy did not even rank for the football World Cup last summer, we now managed to beat Sweden in the race for the most suitable location to host such a magnificent and resonant event.
Once again, even though Italy regularly proves itself to be fragmented in many aspects, such as dialects, accents, traditional food recipies, costumes and political thought, there is actually ONE only thing for which our nation is always able to show unity and team-playing and that one thing is sports.
We, both as Piazzi House and as very proud locals, are looking forward to getting ready for this important event we know has the full potential to make wonders for our local communities and tourism itself.
But winter 2026 is still quite far, isn't it? In the meanwhile, if you are thinking of booking one of our apartments for this summer or next winter, consider dropping us a line! Do you have any questions that could not be answered reading through our website? Just contact us! We will be more than happy to answer any further questions you might have. Go to our contact details.
