The Torino 2006 Paralympics came to a close on Sunday, March 20, 2006 after a week of inspirational performances.

Patti Smith and 300 other performers were part of a show in Torino, Italy's Piazza Castello. The theme of the show was the transition between winter and spring. The Italians continued their eclectic selection of music at the Olympics with opera mixed in with songs from Mary Poppins.

Athletes from 39 countries participated in the Torino 2006 Paralympic Games. Russian athletes turned in the most winning performances claiming a total of 33 medals followed by Ukraine with 25 medals and Germany with 19 medals.

The Paralympics truly live up to the Torino 2006 Olympic slogan "Passion Lives Here". Watching the Paralympics, a showcase for athletes with disabilities, is an inspiration for everyone.

The Paralympics are getting ready to celebrate their opening ceremony in Torino, Italy on Friday, March 10. The flame for the Paralympics has arrived in Torino, Italy and is now traveling through the city. The flame will enter the stadium at the opening ceremonies.

The first Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960 with the first winter Games held in Sweden in 1976. Since 2001, the Paralympics have been staged to coincide with the Olympic Games.

Carnevale came to the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics during the closing ceremonies. Clowns pranced around to the song "The Games People Play", acrobats tumbled and once again people on the field pantomimed along with "YMCA".

The closing ceremonies are always less somber than the opening ceremonies and the Italians took full advantage of the opportunity to end with a big party.

The athletes started their final parade behind women once again wearing dresses with tiny Italian alpine villages sculpted into the bottom. Rather than playing American pop songs from the 1970's athletes paraded out to the old Italian standards "Volare" and "That's Amore"

Torino, Italy and its surrounding area is known for the three B's of wine - Barbaresco, Barolo, and Barbera. There are a few other letters that should be added here, like A for Asti which produces a sparkling spumanti and the twin G’s, Gattinaras and Ghemmes.

The Piedmont (the region of Torino) is regarded by many as the finest wine producing region in Italy. This is apparent when you walk through Torino, Italy and see wine shops compete with cafés and chocolatiers for space.

In fact there are two wine museums in the area: The Martini & Rossi Museum at Pessione, Torino and the Bersano Museum at Nizza Monferrato.

The Piedmont region has 75,000 hectares of vineyards and produces 7,000,000 quintals of white and black grapes. Just what is a quintal? A quintal is equal to 100 kilograms which is equal to just over 220 pounds. In other words they produce a lot of grapes.

The Torino 2006 Olympics got underway with a spectacular opening ceremony February 10. It was a very Italian event with everyone from Dante, Fellini and Botticelli playing a part at the gala. The XX Olympic Winter Games will go from Friday, February 10 through Sunday, February 26.

These are the third Olympic Games to be held in Italy. The first were the 1956 Winter Games held in Cortina d’Ampezzo and the second were the 1960 summer games held in Rome.

Torino, Italy is the largest city ever to host the Olympic Winter Games with around 900,000 residents in the city and over 2.2 million in the surrounding area. The second largest host city was Salt Lake City in 2002.

This article was contributed by Susan Spalt. Susan lived in Italy as a teenager and has traveled extensively in Italy and Europe.

Watching the skiers zoom down the mountain slopes of Sestriere, Italy has been bringing back a lot of memories - of a time, about 1960,  when I  did not exactly zoom down the slopes—but I did get down them. Sestriere, Italy, then, as now, was a beautiful ski resort.

Then, however, as opposed to now, being fitted for skis meant standing on your tip toes and holding your hands over your head. Your skis were about that height. And they were very hard to steer! And getting up to the slopes did not involve a chair lift or heated gondola, but rather a poma lift. A long poma lift. Where it was imperative to hold on and not fall because the terrain was pretty rugged and rescue would not have been easy.

Benvenuto in Italia! With a hearty welcome to Italy the Torino 2006 Olympics are underway.  The Torino 2006 Olympic theme of “Passion Lives Here” was clear from start to finish at the opening ceremonies.

From Carla Bruni wearing a crystal dress while delivering the Italian flag to Luciano Pavarotti singing to close out the night this was a decidedly Italian event.

A spinning red Ferrari completed a series of doughnuts and drove off in a plume of smoke. Rollerbladers flew around the stadium with fire shooting out of the back of their helmets. Trees danced and cow bells rang out. An Italian model portrayed Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Sophia Loren was one of eight distinguished women representing various parts of the world who carried the Olympic flag into the stadium.

The 2006 Olympic Torch has arrived in Torino, Italy for the start of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. The torch has seen Italy from the toe of the boot in the south to the Alps on the northern boarder.

Before arriving in Torino the 2006 Olympic Torch toured most of the Olympic venues including Pinerolo, Sestriere, Cesana, Sauze d’Oulx, Claviere, Torre Pellice and Bardonecchia. The torch has also made side trips to six countries: Vatican City, San Marino, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and France. While in France the 2006 Olympic Torch visited three host cities from past Winter Olympic Games: Grenoble (1968), Albertville (1992) and Chamonix (1924).

By visiting Rome, Florence, Sienna, Naples, Palermo and many towns in between the torch has made a journey through history. The torch has traveled back in time to the Etruscans and Romans, to the bleakness of the middle ages and through the enlightenment of the Renaissance. The torch has crossed rivers and lakes, visited the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas as well as the Dolomites, Alps and the rolling hills of Tuscany.

The 2006 Olympic Torch is making progress after unexpected weather delays. After worrying about having a snowless winter Olympics the weather has finally cooperated and dumped mountains of snow on northern Italy.

Last week heavy snow and bitter cold weather made running the torch impossible. Many roads were made inaccessible which also made driving the torch difficult. Organizers were forced to let carriers of the torch run shorter legs than had been planned.

The 2006 Olympic Torch finally emerged from the heavy snow and made its way into Milan for an evening of fashion shows and music. The torch spent the evening in the Piazza of the sandcastle like Duomo.

The Torino 2006 Olympics and Paralympics will be the most environmentally friendly major sporting events ever held. "The Turin 2006 Winter Olympics will be the first major European sports event that can rightfully call itself 'green'," said Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas on 12 January 2006.

Environmental topics such as energy use, transportation, greenhouse gas emissions, waste management and landscape preservation are at the forefront of the Torino Winter Olympics Organizing Committee's (TOROC) approach to these Games. The goal of the Organizing Committee for the Torino 2006 Olympics is to protect the environment from being permanently changed by the Olympic Games.

The 2006 Olympic Torch re-entered Italy after a brief trip into Slovenia and Austria. The flame has crossed borders two other times in its trek across Italy. It made a stop in both Vatican City and the Republic of San Remo.

On January 21 the torch entered the area of the Vajont Dam tragedy. In recognition of the tragedy battalions of Alpini (Italian Alpine troops) carried the 2006 Olympic Torch through the area where the disaster occurred.

The Vajont Dam was one of the largest dams in the world when it was completed in 1961. On October 9, 1963 an enormous landslide consisting of forest, earth and rock occurred. The landslide hit the reservoir traveling at 68 mph (110 km per hour) causing a megatsunami that destroyed a number of villages including Longarone. The disaster killed almost 2,000 people. Among the torchbearers on this section was a survivor of the disaster and one of the rescuers.

The Olympic flame took a speedy trip through the Ferrari plant in Maranello on January 14 where the flame was allowed to be escorted in a red F430 Spider. It was then on to a more literate setting, Verona, where the flame was handed over under what is claimed to be Juliet’s balcony.

The Olympic flame arrived in Venice on January 17, 2006. Like most tourists to Venice the flame only stayed for two days and therefore only had time for the main tourist attractions. The flame took a trip in a gondola across the Grand Canal and under the Rialto Bridge before visiting Piazza San Marco. Unfortunately the flame will miss Carnivale, one of the grandest parties in the world.

The Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games will be held from March 10 to March 19. The event announced at the Carignano Theatre of Torino was attended by leading figures from both business and sports.

There will be events in 5 disciplines over a period of 10 days. Paralympic disciplines include alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, ice sledge hockey and wheelchair curling. Host cities for the Paralympics will be Torino, Sestriere, Pragelato and Pinerolo. Paralympic villages for the Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games will be set up in Sestriere and Torino.

Italy's best known and greatest female skier is pregnant and retiring from competition. Isolde Kostner will not compete at the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games to be held next month. Although Kostner has not been as successful in recent years she was one of Italy's premier athletes and many hoped she would medal in Torino.

At 30 years of age Kostner is one of the best known female athletes in Italy. Kostner said "my skiing career ends here. I will not participate at the Olympics. My next challenge will not be winning a gold medal but becoming a mother.

Kostner's career of winning ski competitions began in 1994 when she won the Garmisch downhill as a 19-year old. She went on to win bronze medals in both downhill and Super G at the 1994 Olympic Games held in Lillehammer, Norway.

Located in the province of Turin, Pinerolo, Italy is an old walled city that lies near the Lemina and Chisone valleys.  The town of Pinerolo has a long history of occupation, primarily by the French.  Pinerolo was occupied by the French five times between the 15th and 18th centuries.  Among the political prisoners held there in the 17th century was the “Man in the Iron Mask”.

At the center of town is the Piazza del Duomo which contains the 9th century Cathedral of Saint Donato and its’ beautiful campanile.

The Via Principi d’Acaia goes up to a 14th century palace, the Palazzo dei Principi d’Acaia dating from 1318. The palace was once home to a branch of the Savoy family who were rulers of the city. 

Sweeping, hog line, button, curl, clean, pebble?  Are these really sports terms?  They may not provoke the same images as tackle, sack or throw a bomb but they are in fact terms used in the sport of curling.

At first glance curling looks like a sport where anyone could excel.  After all, we all have experience with a broom and anyone who has lived in a northern climate has learned to walk on ice.  But there is more to curling than just cleaning the ice. 

Curling has been around since the 16th century when it was played in Scotland during the winter on frozen ponds, marshes and lochs.  Because it is played on ice, curling is most popular in cold weather countries.  Canada, Norway, Switzerland, Great Britain all did well at the 2002 Winter Olympics.  Curling debuted in Nagano Japan at the 1998 winter games. 

Joe Torre, manager of the New York Yankee baseball team carried the Torino 2006 Olympic torch in Florence, Italy.  Torre carried the torch 400 yards to the foot of the Ponte Vecchio as part of “American Day”. 

Torre received the torch from Brandon Routh, a native of Iowa and star of the soon to be released “Superman Returns” movie.  Torre’s segment of the 2006 Olympic torch relay ended at the foot of the Ponte Vecchio bridge.

Cheers of “we love you Joe” were shouted along his route.  “It was dynamite,” Torre said.  “I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it, but it was really great.”

The Torino 2006 Olympic torch left Greece after a 10 day stay. It arrived in Italy on December 7. Valentino Castellani, the Torino Olympic Organizing chief accompanied the torch from Greece to Italy aboard a military transport plane.

Mr. Castellani will hand the torch to Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on December 8. Mr. Ciampi will then hand the torch to last year's Olympic marathon champion, Italian Stefano Baldini. Rome and Italy soccer star Francesco Totti and his cross-city rival Paolo Di Canio of Lazio will be the first two torch bearers.

Other torch bearers will include singer Gianni Morandi, former soccer star Gianfranco Zola, former athlete Sara Simeoni, fashion designer Giorgio Armani and gymnast Igor Cassina. In all, ten thousand and one people will carry the lit Torino 2006 Olympic torch during the Torino 2006 Olympic Torch Relay.

If what you want is variety then Sestriere is the place to be for the Torino Winter Olympics 2006 in February. Most of the alpine skiing events will be held in Sestriere Italy.

The Sestriere area of Italy includes four villages. They are Sestriere Colle, Sestriere Borgata, Champlas du Col and Champlas Janvier. Sestriere is part of a region in Italy known as the Milky Way. The Milky Way includes five areas in Italy: Sestriere (the four villages), Sauze d'Oulx, San Sicario, Cesana and Claviere and the resort of Montgenevre in France. The Italian and French resorts are connected by a pass that Hannibal, riding on elephants, used to invade Italy.

The villages of Sestriere were built in 1934 by the Agnelli family, the same family associated with the Fiat car company. The name Sestriere comes from pietra sesteria, a stone that was used in ancient times to measure distances.

This quaint medieval town will be the site of one of the newest and most exciting events at the Winter Olympic Games:  snowboarding. 

Located near the French border, Bardonecchia sits in a valley surrounded by mountains.  A river runs through the town with mountains rising all around making this a picture perfect little town. 

The town of Bardonecchia has traditional stone and wooden buildings with cobblestone roads dating from the 1300’s.  Most of the hotels are located in the center of town near a large number of shops, restaurants, pizzerias, pubs and bars.  Most of the streets are either flat or have gentle slopes so walking is not difficult.

There are six snowboard events in the Olympic Winter Games: men’s and women’s halfpipe, men’s and women’s parallel giant slalom, men’s and women’s snowboard cross.

The halfpipe competition takes place on a U - shaped course dug deep into a hill. The competitors use the speed they gain on the slope to come up over the rim of the pipe and perform acrobatic aerial tricks.  Competitors are judged by degree of difficulty and form.

Cesana will be the site of the biathlon events at the Torino Winter Olympics, a sport that in some form dates back as far as 1776. 

Cesana is and ancient village located in the San Sicario region of the Italian Alps, about 50 miles west of Turin.  Cesana with its spectacular views is located under the Chaberton Mountain in what is called the Upper Valley skiing district.  The peak of the Chaberton is dominated by the “Batteria di Torri”, the tower battery.    The village is one of the most beautiful and well-preserved in the valley. 

The Torino Winter Olympic Games are almost here!  Remember the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Park City, Utah in the US? 

That was where we first learned there was a skeleton other than what forms the structure of your body.  This one is a sled that hurtles participants down an ice chute at break neck speeds.  We watched skiers defy gravity by doing pirouettes in the sky, generally landing on both skis. 

Men and women hurtled down mountains at speeds most of us are afraid to drive in our cars.   It was where Sarah Hughes gave a breathtaking free-skating performance that moved her from 4th to 1st in figure skating.    We were witness to short track speed skating which made roller derbies of the past seem tame.