I’ve said something akin to this before, and I’ll say it again here:
If you’d told me as a child that I’d ever – EVER – attend an Olympic Games, I’d have looked at you as though you had a third eye on your forehead.
– Doug Hill, Sports Fan
Yet, there I was staring at the Olympic Cauldron with my wife, Carol, along Corso Italia in the village of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
Absolutely. Flipping. Bonkers.
Yep, I attended the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, and it was awesome!
Long before we got to Italy, those who’d previously attended Games… any Games… had told me as much.
“Whether you want to spend a little or a lot, you can enjoy the Games at various price points,” they told me.
“You don’t even need to go to an event to enjoy the Olympics,” another said.
Having experienced the Games in both Cortina and Milan, I now know what they meant.
Planning and Preparation
I don’t know that you can set off to travel Around the World in 80 Sporting Events and not include the Olympic Games on the list of events attended.
That said, when I began planning this project and decided the goal was to complete it by my 60th birthday month (June 2027), there was only one option for the Olympic Games: Milano Cortina 2026. Technically, if I’d really been prepared, I could have tried to get to Paris Summer Games in 2024, but alas …
With that, I dutifully put my name into the ticket lottery in late 2024 in hopes of getting a chance to purchase tickets.
- Great News: It was selected! And I was given my purchase window.
- Not So Great News: My wife and I planned to do the Games with our friends, Tim and Tracey from Fairbanks, AK, and during my ticket purchase window they would be traveling through Australia with variable connectivity. Suddenly the pressure of our entire touring party was on … me!
And then I began to dig into the details of the Milano Cortina Games and ticket purchases more deeply.
Each purchaser was permitted to buy no more than 25 tickets during their window.
And then I noticed the geographic expanse involved in these Games and realized how daunting it was going to be to attempt to fully enjoy them.
There were four hubs throughout northern Italy that hosted competitions: Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Bormio/Livigno, and Val di Fiemme. The closing ceremonies were in Verona.
While they appear close on the map, the fact that you’re required to travel around and through the Italian Alps during the dead of winter makes for some challenges. For example, though separated by fewer than 60 miles, traveling from Cortina to Val di Fiemme either required an automobile for a minimum of two hours of travel, or no fewer than three separate bus lines and transfers that would take up to six hours.
Strategy, therefore, was going to be a critical component of enjoying our Olympic experience. Strategy and, of course, luck. Who knew what would be available and at what price point by the time my purchase window opened?
My Time to Shine
Clockwise from upper left, U.S. Ice Dancers Evan Bates and Madison Chock during their free dance; the Milan Ice Skating Arena; the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team gathers around the goal before the start of their Semifinal Match with Sweden; the Sliding Venue in Cortina; Canadian Ice Dancers, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier; U.S. Mixed Doubles Curling teammates, Corey Thiesse and Korey Dropkin plot strategy during their semfinal against Italy. the Olympic logo on the Curling Rink.
The much-anticipated date arrived (February 7, 2025), and my alarm was set for the unholy hour of 3:30 in the morning in order to log in and be ready.
Thanks to several WhatsApp messages, a few emails, and even a phone call or two with Tim, my/our list was prepared, double-checked, and cross-referenced with the scheduled dates and times of events. Like an R.L. Stine choose-your-own-adventure “Goosebumps” novel, I had several if/then scenarios mapped out should no tickets be available for certain events/dates when I went to secure the purchase.
We planned to experience the Games in both Milan and in one of the mountain venues. Upon reviewing the mountain villages, the ability to (relatively) easily travel to them, the breadth of events offered in each, and the likelihood of finding lodging in the vicinity, Cortina became the mountain venue favorite.
Additionally, my credit card was ready to melt (well, not literally, but you get the idea).
And then, it was go time!
With many of the most popular events scheduled for Milan, I chose to begin my race to 24 tickets (remember the 25-ticket limit) there.
First up, because I had a personal connection to 3-time World Ice Dancing Champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates, I immediately clicked the link for the final night of Ice Dancing. It was also going to be, by far, the most expensive single ticket on the list at 550 Euros a piece for Category B tickets. Can I only assume the Category A selection would have placed us on the Zamboni?
Next, I turned my attention to Women’s Ice Hockey. A late-afternoon semifinal was doable, and the chance to see either of the pre-eminent women’s squads (Canada or the USA was all but assured.
Next, Short Track Speed Skating has always seemed simultaneously fascinating and full-on bonkers from the comfort of my living room, so I secured four for an evening of the chaos.
Finally, since I knew the NHL players were returning to the Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi, I took a flyer on a preliminary round of Men’s Ice Hockey.
It should be noted that as I purchased these tickets, the Games were not scheduled to begin for 363 days, so I had no idea who we might be seeing in any of these four events.
With 16 tickets in hand, I then turned my attention to Cortina.
I figured trying to watch any of the women’s alpine skiing events would likely mean sitting in grandstands watching video boards, so I turned my attention to the two other skills being contested in Cortina: Sliding and curling.
As a longtime Detroit-area resident, I recall seeing a healthy dose of curling on neighboring Windsor, Ontario’s television station, so that fascinated me. And, to be clear, nothing screams Winter Olympics quite like someone hurtling themselves down a sheet of ice on a sled.
Mixed Doubles Curling Semifinals and Men’s Luge Runs 1 and 2 tickets secured.
Getting and Staying There
Clockwise from upper left, the sun shines over Venice; a view of the Swiss Alps from our flight to Venice; the Olympic Cauldron in Milan under the Arch of Peace; LED Olympic figures decorated the city streets of both Milan and Cortina; Milan’s famed Duomo at night; Venice’s St. Mark’s Capanile towers above the Basilica de San Marco.
With 24 tickets in hand, up next were the logistics. And they were plentiful.
- Where to fly in and out of?
- To rent a vehicle or not?
- How to get to Cortina?
- How to get from Cortina to Milan?
- Where to stay?
As our time in Cortina was the first leg of our Olympic journey, it made sense to fly into Venice rather than Milan. Venice to Cortina is about a 2-hour car ride, so, the thinking went, flying into Venice would provide us options of places to stay (anywhere from Venice to Cortina).
Plus, seeing Venice might be, you know, nice.
Carol and I also decided that since we’d never been to Italy and we were already there, leaving the country from Rome seemed to make sense:-)
We waffled on whether or not a vehicle was necessary. Ultimately, the decision was made to stick with public transportation and the occasional ride service.
Tracey was kind enough to spearhead train booking, and there was a fair amount of it.
Two trains and a bus were necessary to get us from Venice into the Dolomites. Add another train to that trip to get from the mountains to Milan. There was also a train necessary to travel from Milan to Rome.
Lodging was a completely different animal.
While I found a few Airbnbs in Milan straight away, each refused my booking request or changed the rates dramatically once they realized it was going to be during the Olympics. I finally found a spot north of the city center that was a short walk from a subway station and was reasonably priced.
Accommodations in the mountains proved more challenging.
Staying in Cortina proper was cost-prohibitive. An initial search yielded a spot that was well into five figures for the five nights we were going to be there.
Complicating matters even further was the Italian Olympic Organizing Committee’s lack of timely detail (in my opinion) on transportation options. We learned fairly early on that only residents or other authorized users would be able to drive automobiles past a certain perimeter. Furthermore, there was no train service to Cortina, and the only bus schedule available for several months indicated no routes that would leave Cortina following evening events (of which we’d be attending two).
Finally, about 90 days before the Games, information became available about shuttle bus services and/or park-and-ride options.
We had use of a home offered to us free of charge by a friend of my sister-in-law, Luisa, but that would have been 2- to 3-hour commutes into Cortina for events and required us to have an automobile. I passed along my thanks to Franco for the offer, but that it wouldn’t work out.
Ultimately, Tim and Tracey found an Airbnb in San Vito di Cadore, a community about a 20-minute bus ride away, that – while a bit pricey – afforded us the ability to get there and, more importantly, get to Cortina for the Games with as few challenges as possible.
Or so we thought;-)
- Next Time: The Cortina Experience