Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 Tickets, Trips and Experiences

[heywoodu 16,458]

2 hours ago, Agger said:

Happened again 

So looking forward to going through this again tomorrow  

[heywoodu 16,458]

10 hours ago, hckošice said:

Try some Olympic houses, pretty sure they will broadcast the matches, Slovak house will definitely do, but here need a registration prior https://casaslovacca.sk/en/

Casa Brasil also broadcasts things on a few big screens, although of course I'm not sure what they show exactly (yesterday they showed speed skating, that was cool).

[heywoodu 16,458]

About that: we were in Casa Brasil yesterday, Bruna was of course going there because they want most or all Brazilian athletes having a day there, but her parents and I were invited to join them as well

 

It was fun, Bruna and Duda were received very warmly, had to play a game of curling, make some photos, do some interviews and all that. Meanwhile her parents and I were apparently VIPs and could enter the VIP area, where instead of having to pay €10 (!) for a caipirinha, we got them for free whenever we wanted....that was cool, but I may have gone a bit too far  It was fun though, I do NOT dance and I absolutely stay far away from dogs generally speaking, but last night I danced (or 'danced') with both Bruna and my mother in law and we were having the very best time and later there was someone with a dog who I could not stop petting  

 

Also nice to meet some medal winners: the ambassador/host, who took care especially of us, was none other than former sprinter - Olympic 4x100m silver and two time 200m WCh medalist - Claudinei da Silva, who was super nice. One of the other ambassadors, who has a big role in all of this, was another sprinter, but waterbased instead of landbased: Bruno Fratus, also a really friendly guy

 

Apparently snowboarder Pat Burgener gave a show as well (he is also a professional musician), but I didn't realize it was him. I think, I don't remember 100% of the evening to be fair.

[heywoodu 16,458]

Oh, and both Milan and Bergamo: see you never again, I guess

 

Felt like London: everything looks old, broken and abandoned. Plus driving in Milan is just an absolute horror show. They took literally everything that makes sense when designing roads and such and then just said "ok, this all goes in the trash, let's just randomize this shit". Holy hell. Bergamo wasn't much better, and neither were the highways in between. Doesn't help that I think half the Italian drivers got their license as a bonus when they bought a bottle of milk or something. As the youth may say, in Italy you just yeet yourself into traffic, yell YOLO and hope for the best every day.

 

I'm happy I didn't have plans for anything else in Milan, felt so incredibly out of place there. Very happy to be back in nice, calm Tramin  

[Agger 1,841]

On my way back to Milan now.

Will take a look at the cauldron and maybe a bit more "Olympic tourism" before I have a concert in the evening.

It has been a blast and I'm sure that I'll be back for some biathlon in Antholz some day. More generally this certainly won't be my last time going to winter sports (strongly considering the Worlds in Falun next year).

 

Milano... Well. I guess I'll be back in the future, but mainly to see some of the historic sights and would also love to see a match at San Siro before demolition.

 

And @heywoodu A dane cheered for @brunamoura. Now you can cheer a bit for Anne today  

Edited February 21 by Agger

[Agger 1,841]

So uhm... Am I crazy when I use my train journey to to look at what a trip to the 2030 games could look like if the schedule would be the same as this?  

[OlympicIRL 6,302]

25 minutes ago, Agger said:

So uhm... Am I crazy when I use my train journey to to look at what a trip to the 2030 games could look like if the schedule would be the same as this?  

Seems normal to me  

[NearPup 4,154]

So, wanted to update on this now that I’m back home in Seattle to say I had a really good time in Milan. I ended up not going to events outside of Milan (I went to short track, speed skating and hockey), and it was probably a good decision to keep things simple for my first Olympics.

 

Getting around in Milan was a breeze, and I feel things were pretty well organized at the venues (though the ice hockey venue definitively could have used a couple more weeks of work). I was especially pleased with the speed skating venue, given it’s a temporary track it looked really good once you were actually in your seat and things were well organized for spectators (even though it was a looooong walk to and from the train station).

 

So ya, happy with the experience, as a newbie to both attending the Olympics and traveling in Europe. Def made me want to attend the French Alps in 2030 (and subject them to my horrible-for-a-native French accent xD )

 

Thanks to  for being good hosts.

 

As an aside, I now understand why people dislike British Airways, and Condor was surprisingly okay, though it was definitively a "you get what you paid for" situation (flew SEA-LHR to get to Europe and FRA-SEA on the way back).

 

Edit: oh, and big shout-out to the volunteers who were universally lovely.

Edited February 25 by NearPup

[intoronto 6,882]

I found Condor really nice. I did upgrade myself, so maybe thats why. I would fly them again

 

[NearPup 4,154]

2 hours ago, intoronto said:

I found Condor really nice. I did upgrade myself, so maybe thats why. I would fly them again

 

I was in premium economy as well, the extra five inches of leg room definitively helped me stay sane.

 

For BA I was in business class and I just wasn't impressed at all, despite the cabin itself being really good (it was a 787-900 so their newer business class product). The service was just... not good enough for international business class - they actually made me appreciate Air Canada xD . With Condor I could forgive the service not being that good because of how little (relatively) I paid, and the seat was comfortable enough.

Edited February 25 by NearPup