2006 Olympic Winter Games torch relay begins

2006 Olympic Winter Games torch relay begins{mosimage}Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi passed the Olympic flame to Athens marathon gold medalist Stefano Baldini on Thursday, beginning the torch relay for the Turin Winter Games.

After the ceremony at the presidential Quirinal Palace, Baldini carried the torch straight to the Trevi Fountain for the first handoff.

”It was very emotional,” Baldini said. ”It’s moments like these that make you want to continue.”

Baldini recalled that the flame represents peace as he addressed protests against a high-speed rail link in the Olympic zone.

”I hope there is some sort of truce for the Olympics,” Baldini said. ”We organized these games and our reputations as Italians are on the line, the Olympics are watched all over the world.”

Stefano Donati, a recreational marathon runner, was the second torchbearer.

Other Rome landmarks, including the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon, were also to be covered before the torch arrived at the Vatican later Thursday for a blessing by Pope Benedict XVI. The relay will end at the opening ceremony in Turin on Feb. 10.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge and Turin organizing committee chief Valentino Castellani also attended the ceremony at the Quirinal Palace with Ciampi.

The flame is ”a symbol of human civilization, the desire for progress and brotherhood,” Ciampi said. ”After Greece, Rome is its second home. My presidency began seven years ago with a message of support for Turin’s candidacy and it was a good choice.”

The beginning of the relay coincided with a church and national holiday in Italy, the Immaculate Conception. The first day will end with the lighting of a cauldron at the Michelangelo-designed Campidoglio on Rome’s Capitoline Hill, the exact spot where the relay began for the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics.

The torch will spend one more day in Rome on Friday, when soccer players Francesco Totti of AS Roma and Paolo Di Canio of city rival Lazio take part.

The relay will then move on to touch every province in Italy _ with forays into France, Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia. It will pass by the Leaning Tower of Pisa and up Venice’s Grand Canal.

On Jan. 26, the torch will return to Cortina d’Ampezzo for the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Winter Games held there.

In all, the relay will cover 11,300 kilometers (7,022 miles) and involve 10,000 torchbearers, gondolas, a Ferrari sports car, and a cavalry regiment.

Turin-based design company Pininfarina SpA, renowned engineer of Fiats and Ferraris, designed the torch to look like the curved top of a ski.

Moroccan runner Hicham El Guerrouj, Italy soccer coach Marcello Lippi, New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, and all Italian gold medalists from the Athens and 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics will take part in the relay.

The final torchbearer, whose name has not yet been revealed, will light the flame at the opening ceremony in Turin. Ski great Alberto Tomba is considered the favorite for the honor.

-The Associated Press