Circle 6–22 February 2026 on your calendar and set a phone alert for 20:00 CET on 5 February, when the Milano-Cortina opening ceremony starts at San Siro Stadium. Tickets go on sale to the general public on 10 June 2025 through the official Milano-Cortina 2026 site; expect snow events to sell out in the first 48 hours after the Nordic combined and biathlon schedules drop in September.
Milan will host figure skating, short track and ice hockey finals at the new €145 million Ice Park in the Porta di Roma district, while Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956 Olympic sliding track gets a €50 million overhaul for bobsleigh and skeleton. Bormio Stelvio piste returns for men alpine speed events, and Anterselva 72-year-old biathlon stadium adds 5,000 temporary seats overlooking the final shooting range. High-speed trains connect Milano Centrale to Cortina in 2 h 15 min; regional Trenord day passes cost €16 and include the replacement bus over the Passo Tonale during peak weekends.
The programme adds ski-mountaineering (five medals), women Nordic combined on the large hill for the first time, and a mixed-gender snowboard cross team relay. All 116 events stream live on Discovery+ in Europe, Peacock in the USA, and CBC Gem in Canada; BBC iPlayer carries free 24-hour UK coverage with English commentary from Eileen Gu and Lindsey Vonn. Download the official Milano-Cortina 2026 app before 1 December to get real-time slope conditions, lift queues and a GPS tracker that pings when your favourite racers start the downhill.
Milan-Cortina 2026 Calendar & Host Zones
Mark 6–22 February 2026 on your phone now and set two alarms: the first for 10:00 CET on 6 Feb when the opening ceremony kicks off at San Siro, the second for 08:30 CET on 22 Feb when the women 30 km cross-country mass start closes the Games. Between those dates you have 16 full competition days, three weekends, and 116 medal events squeezed into 12 venues that sit no more than 90 min apart by high-speed train or shuttle bus.
Milan hosts figure-skating finals and short-track at the €240 million Ice Park in the Porta Romana rail yard; the metro new M4 line drops you 200 m from the turnstiles in 12 min from Duomo. Cortina keeps its historic charm for alpine skiing, bobsleigh and skeleton on the renovated Olympia delle Tofane and Eugenio Monti tracks; the 1956 stands have been retrofitted with heated seats and USB-C ports under every armrest. Verona steals the spotlight on 8 and 11 Feb with nighttime nordic-combined and ski-jumping finals in the ancient Arena, the 30 000-seat Roman amphitheatre lit by 360-degree LED towers that drop the temperature inside by 4 °C so the snow survives.
If you crave speed, head to Turin Oval Lingotto (45 min on Frecciarossa from Milan Centrale) for long-track speed-skating qualifiers on 7–9 Feb; seats above the finishing line cost €35 and let you hear the blades scrape at 60 km/h. Families prefer Predazzo in the Dolomites–free shuttle buses run every 20 min from Trento rail station to the cross-country stadium where kids under 12 enter without tickets when accompanied by an adult. Book accommodation in Bergamo or Brescia if Milan hotels sell out; both cities sit on the Milan-Venice corridor and night trains leave at 01:30, depositing you back by 06:00 for the first runs.
Download the official "Milano Cortina 26" app before December 2025; it pushes real-time shuttle delays, seat upgrades and concession e-vouchers for polenta and mulled wine inside every venue. Snowboarders compete on 11–13 Feb, but the halfpipe finals overlap with the downhill super-G at Cortina–use the app split-screen map to hop between the two sites in 22 min via the Cortina Skyline gondola that runs every 90 sec during medal runs. Tickets go on sale 12 March 2025 at 14:00 CET; last-minute blocks are released 48 h earlier than the session start, so refresh the page at noon and keep a credit card with no foreign-fee limit ready.
Opening & Closing Ceremony Times in Your Time Zone
Set a calendar alert for 20:00 CET on 6 February 2026; that when the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza lights up for the opening ceremony, and you can convert it once instead of chasing updates. If you’re on the U.S. East Coast, tune in at 14:00 EST the same day; West Coast viewers click "live" at 11:00 PST.
Britain and Ireland share 19:00 GMT, while mainland Europe keeps the local 20:00. India watches at 00:30 IST on 7 February, Japan at 04:00 JST, and Sydney summer crowd gets it at 06:00 AEDT. Brazil starts Friday afternoon at 16:00 BRT, and South Africa joins at 21:00 SAST.
- Closing ceremony: 22 February 2026, 19:30 CET.
- East Coast: 13:30 EST.
- West Coast: 10:30 PST.
- London/Dublin: 18:30 GMT.
- New Delhi: 00:00 IST (23 Feb).
- Tokyo: 03:30 JST (23 Feb).
- Sydney: 05:30 AEDT (23 Feb).
- São Paulo: 15:30 BRT.
- Johannesburg: 20:30 SAST.
Rai, BBC, NBC, and Eurosport stream without extra delay, but check their app settings to pick the CET feed if you want the stadium audio raw. VPN users should pick Milan servers for RaiPlay; it asks for a free account and an Italian postcode–20122 works fine.
Daylight-saving shifts don’t kick in until 29 March, so the listed winter offsets stay locked through both ceremonies. Print the table, stick it next to the router, and you’ll never miss an entrance queue or the final torch exit.
If you’re booking a watch-party venue, aim to arrive thirty minutes early; security scans and credential checks add twenty, and the pre-show drone rehearsal starts exactly fifteen minutes before the broadcast window.
Train Timetable Milano Centrale → Alpine Venues
Board Trenitalia Regionale 2525 at 06:25 from Milano Centrale; it reaches Bormio via Tirano at 10:12 with one same-platform change in Tirano (train 2730). The return leg leaves Bormio 16:50, giving you six hours on the slopes before the 20:31 arrival back in Milan–plenty for a day trip.
Headed to Cortina? Trenitalia and ÖBB run a combined service: Milano Centrale 08:35 → Calalzo 12:05, then the 12:20 Dolomiti Bus 30 whisks you to Cortina bus station by 13:10. A €19 "Treno + Autobus" ticket covers both legs and stays valid on any same-day bus if snow delays the train.
Weekend skiers gain an extra 45 minutes in bed: Regionale 2561 departs Milano Centrale 07:10 every Saturday and Sunday, connects with the 09:05 Bernina Express in Tirano, and drops you in St. Moritz at 10:58. From St. Moritz, PostBus 2.180 reaches Diavolezza base station 11:40; total one-way fare €35.
Book seat-specific tickets on the Trenitalia app up to four months ahead; regional trains open 60 days out. Snow-season delays average 12 min on the Tirano–Bormio leg–buffer 30 min for cable-car connections. If you miss the last train, FlixBus 709 leaves Tirano 22:05 and arrives Milano Lampugnano 01:10 for €14.99.
Free Shuttle Bus Routes Inside Cortina d’Ampezzo
Grab the Line A shuttle every 12 minutes from 06:30-23:30 to zip between the Olympic Ice Stadium, the Faloria cable-car base, and the bus hub at Piazzale della Stazione; the ride is free with any accredited pass or ticket, and the last departure always waits ten minutes after the last event ends so you won’t get stranded.
Line B loops clockwise through the pedestrian core: it starts at the Fiames park-&-ride (1,200 spaces), calls at Via del Mercato for groceries, skims the Tofana start house for alpine skiing, then swings back–total lap 18 minutes, Wi-Fi onboard, and you can track the next bus on cortinabus.org/livemap.
Need to reach the sliding centre at Eugene? Hop Line C; it leaves every half-hour from the main station, climbs 7 km in 14 minutes, drops you 80 m from the entrance, and after 21:00 the service switches to an on-call minibus–dial +39 0436 2201 and it arrives within 8 minutes, still free.
Where to Park Overnight Near Bormio Slopes
Slide into the illuminated P3 car park on Via Battaglione; it opens at 17:30, costs €15 per 24 h, keeps 90 spaces for vans under 2.2 m and you can pay by credit card at the exit column. Plug the adjacent €2 power post (max 10 A) before strolling five minutes to the old-town bakeries for a late-night ciappe.
If P3 fills, drop down the hairpin to the public lot behind the Ice Rink–ungated, free, flat gravel, and patrolled twice nightly by local police. Arrive after 19:00 when day skiers leave; line up along the western hedge to catch morning sun on your windshield and leave 2 m clearance for the daily 07:00 gritting truck.
| Lot | Height limit | Fee | Services |
|---|---|---|---|
| P3 Via Battaglione | 2.2 m | €15/24 h | Lighting, power, toilet 50 m |
| Ice Rink rear | None | €0 | Police patrol, no toilet |
| Valle area (P8) | 3.5 m | €10/24 h | Camper service, shower €3 |
Camper vans over 2.2 m roll straight to Valle area (P8) before the tunnel; buy the €10 ticket at the bar, empty grey water at the marked drain and walk 12 min to the gondola. Snow tyres mandatory from 15 Nov–30 Apr; carry chains either way–Bormio night plough packs the curb into a firm ridge you’ll need to cross at dawn.
Full Event List & Live-Stream Access
Set a phone alert for 23 Jan–8 Feb 2026 and open the Olympics app before tickets drop; every discipline from new ski-big-air knockouts to the 50 km classic will stream in 1080p with English commentary on discovery+ across Europe, Peacock in the USA, and free on RaiPlay in Italy–no VPN needed if you log in with your Games account once you land in Milan. Bookmark the "Events" tab, toggle "spoiler-free" and pick the four-digit channel code that matches your venue; the same code works on in-arena Wi-Fi so you can re-watch a jump or replay while queuing for hot chocolate.
If you miss the live window, full replays land within five minutes, each run timestamped so you can jump straight to the second-run start gate or the final shoot-out in mixed curling; download them overnight on hotel Wi-Fi, because 4G around the Alpine valleys still wobbles above 1 400 m.
Figure-Skating Finals: Global TV Channels & VPN Work-Arounds
Grab the BBC iPlayer app if you’re outside the UK–connect through a London server on NordVPN (currently £3.19/month) and create a free BBC account with any UK postcode; the pairs free skate streams live at 13:00 GMT on 12 February.
Canadians abroad can piggyback on CBC Gem: pick a Toronto node, clear browser cookies, and log in with a randomly generated postal code starting with "M"; CBC holds every medal event in 4K with commentary by Kurt Browning and Elladj Baldé.
Japan TV-Asahi offers the cleanest 1080i feed for ice dance; Tokyo-based VPN IPs unlock it within 30 s, no local phone number asked. Switch to HLS stream link "/isu/milano2026/icedance" and add the free AdGuard filter list to kill pre-roll ads.
European viewers keep an ORF (Austria) backup: German commentary, zero geofence hiccups during Austrian pair Tatiana Danilova final, and a 7-day replay window. Vienna servers on Surfshark reach 95 Mbps at 6 a.m. local, enough for 50 fps streaming without buffering.
USA audiences without cable: Peacock Premium ($5.99) carries every final live and on-demand, but if you’re traveling, switch your VPN to New York, open an Incognito tab, pay with a US PayPal account linked to any state zip. Women free skate begins 19:30 CET on 14 February; Peacock adds a multiview button that syncs three camera angles on one screen.
Quick channel list:
- BBC iPlayer – UK, free
- CBC Gem – Canada, free
- TV-Asahi – Japan, free
- ORF TVthek – Austria, free
- Peacock Premium – USA, $5.99
- ERT Play – Greece, free
- SBS On Demand – Australia, free
Australia SBS On Demand asks for a postcode starting with "2"; Melbourne VPN IPs work, but choose the "Low" quality setting first, then ramp up to 720p to dodge the 1 Mbps limit SBS imposes on fresh accounts.
If a platform sniffs your VPN, swap to WireGuard protocol, toggle IPv6 leak protection, and renew the IP every 45 min–most broadcasters only flag static data-center ranges, so residential rotating pools stay under the radar.
Q&A:
When exactly do the Milano-Cortina Games start and finish, and why do they run longer than the 17-day schedule we saw in Beijing?
The action starts with women freestyle skiing qualifiers on 4 February 2026 and wraps up with the men ice-hockey gold-medal match on 22 February 2026. Organisers stretched the window to 19 days because the mountain venues in the Dolomites are two hours from Milan; extra buffer days give snow-making crews time to move equipment between Cortina, Livigno and Bormio if warm weather hits, and they allow figure-skating ice resurfacers to travel overnight to the Forum di Milano after the opening ceremony. Ticket holders get the same number of events, just spread a little wider so nothing overlaps.
Which new events were added for 2026, and where will I be able to watch them without cable?
Five medal races appear for the first time: women Nordic combined (large hill), ski-mountaineering sprint and relay, mixed-gender skeleton team, and dual-slalom snowboard knock-out. In Italy RAI will carry every minute free-to-air on RAI 2 and RAI Play. If you’re abroad, the IOC "Olympic Channel" site streams the new sports live in 108 territories; in the U.S. Peacock shows them same-time, no paywall, because NBC sub-licensed the gavel for the debut sports only. A VPN set to Italy plus a free RAI Play account still works if you want the domestic commentary.
I have a tight budget but want to see the downhill in person. Where should I stay and how early do I need to book?
Book Cortina d’Ampezzo accommodation before this summer ends hotels already list 80 % of February rooms as wait-list only. The cheapest workaround is a € 35 Veneto region bus-pass that links Belluno (30 km away) to the slope in 40 minutes; Belluno hostels still have dorm beds under € 50. If you miss that window, look at Pieve di Cadore 20 km north rooms there were € 70 per night during test events last winter. Tickets for the women and men downhill go on sale 12 September 2025 on the Milano-Cortina site; grandstand seats start at € 65, standing free zones at € 25.
How do the dual-city setup and the Alps-to-arena distance change the experience for fans compared with single-host Games?
You trade the compact village vibe for a road-trip feel. A € 22 Trenord "Olympic ticket" covers all regional trains plus game-day shuttle buses from Milano Centrale to every mountain venue; the longest ride is 2 h 15 min to Bormio, shorter than the Heathrow-to-Coventry trek for London 2012 football. Because Milan handles ceremonies and ice sports, you can watch short-track speed skating at noon, hop on the 13:40 train, and still catch the tail end of women ski-mountaineering qualifying in Cortina at 16:00. Hotels stay cheaper in the lowland city, while the Alps give you the classic snow-globe scenery for the outdoor races.
Reviews
BlazeForge
Ah, the 2026 Winter Olympics because nothing screams "peak athletic drama" like watching grown adults slide down a hill on a tea tray in minus-thirty while commentators pretend it basically Apollo 11. Milan and Cortina, two cities united by the noble goal of blowing Italian taxpayers’ cash faster than a Ferrari on fire. Dates? February, when the only thing colder than the snow is the IOC conscience. Events? Sure, if you call "biathlon" a sport and not just a Nordic mid-life crisis with rifles. Wanna watch live? Fire up yet another streaming platform, sell a kidney for the premium bundle, and pray the feed doesn’t buffer just as someone face-plants into a triple-axel.
Abigail
So, girls, am I the only one who already feels frost-nipped just hearing "Milano-Cortina 2026"? They promise snowflakes, hot cocoa, and five-ring magic, but my wallet whispers it already shivering plane, hotel, cocoa all priced like caviar. Then come the queues: an hour to watch thirty seconds of luge, another hour to unfreeze my phone because the battery gave up at ‑10 °C. And who will still be standing after the gala? My back after a night on a lumpy rented mattress, while the athletes snuggle in eco-villages paid for by my tax euros. Tell me, why do we keep volunteering to freeze, overpay, and pretend we’re inspired do we secretly enjoy the bruises, or is hope just hypothermia in disguise?
FrostByte
Oi, mate, woke up buzzing for Milano-Cortina 2026, clicked here, and bam nothing but dry dates and corporate links. Where the roar of the downhill, the frostbite on your nose, the pint with strangers after a GB sled crashes? They list "how to watch" like we’re robots scanning QR codes. I want the stink of wet snowboard boots, the 5 a.m. trudge to the curling rink, the kid who’ll cry because he saw his hero whizz past. Give me the crunch of Alpine snow, not another tidy timetable.
Lucas Harrington
Dude, you hyped Milano-Cortina like it the new Coachella so why does every ticket link dump me into a 404 blizzard colder than the Alps?