To great cheers and applause from several thousand people, the Olympic flame arrived in Milan on Thursday around 24 hours before the opening ceremony of the Winter Games in northern Italy.
After a journey of over 12,000 km since the flame was lit on November 26th on the Greek Peloponnese peninsula, Italian ballerina Nicoletta Manni carried the torch to the Piazza del Duomo in front of the Milan Cathedral in rainy weather.
The Olympic torch relay takes the flame through the entire city on Friday.
The fire also passed through the San Siro Stadium, where the opening ceremony will take place. The climax of the ceremony is the lighting of the Olympic flame from the flame in a cauldron under the Arch of Peace.
