The Turin 2006 Winter Olympics: a memory that speaks of peace

On February 6th, the Olympic flame is lit once again with the start of the Milano–Cortina Olympic Games.
An event that looks to the future, but one that, for me, immediately brings back the memory of a special time: the Turin 2006 Olympics.

They were not just a great sporting event. They were a collective experience, a moment in which different cultures, languages and stories came together under a universal message of peace and welcome. Sport, when truly lived, has this extraordinary power: it unites.
The Olympic Games carry a value that goes beyond competition. I often think about the Olympic Truce, about mutual respect, about the idea that for a few days the world can speak a common language.
For Piedmont, Turin 2006 was exactly that.

A flame we preserve

At Cascina Castlèt, we preserve one of the Olympic torches used along the flame’s journey: number 055. It is not just an object to be kept, but a living symbol. Every time I look at it, it reminds me of those days when the world looked at Turin and Piedmont as an open, contemporary and welcoming land.

That same energy also travelled through design and culture. The travelling exhibition Piemonte Torino Design, organised by the Piedmont Region with objects selected by the Polytechnic University of Turin, brought the image of the 2006 Olympics around the world. Among the objects on display was our Passum Magnum.
On that occasion, photographs by Magnum Photos were also exhibited, including the harvest at Cascina Castlèt captured by Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert.

Welcome, women, responsibility

In those years, I was a delegate of Le Donne del Vino Piemonte. Together with other women producers, we took care of welcoming journalists arriving at the Olympic press centre. It was a collective effort, built on attention, listening and pride in our territory.

During those days, photographer Ferdinando Scianna took a photograph of me together with other members of Le Donne del Vino. An intense gaze, capable of freezing a moment that today tastes of memory: the responsibility of representing a community, and the awareness that even the simplest gestures can help tell a much larger story.

A message that still matters today

Today, as new Olympic Games are about to begin, I strongly feel the need to renew that message. Peace, dialogue, hospitality: values that sport can express like few other languages.
At Cascina Castlèt, we preserve that flame not as a relic, but as a living sign. Because the Olympics, then as now, are not just a competition: they are an invitation to recognise ourselves as part of the same human community.