Milan and Cortina, the big city and small town in Italy that are co-hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics, are both rich with culture and history. But in the case of Cortina, that culture and history are tied to the Olympic Games themselves. In fact, you might say the Olympics are woven into the very fabric of Cortina’s identity.

It was early in the morning when we met Giacomo Colli at an ice rink near Cortina’s small and charming town center. The rink wasn’t open yet, and sunlight streamed in through the tall windows facing the jagged peaks of the Dolomites, some of the most famous mountains in the Italian Alps.

“Back in the days, this was an open air ice rink,” Colli said.

It was the site of the opening ceremony for the 1956 Winter Olympics, he explained — and the rink where Olympic hockey

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