Where the athletes of Milan Cortina live: ten things to know for 1154 rooms
The Milanese continue with their lives – tram, metro, work, home – and almost do not notice that a city within the city has sprung up. The Olympic Village is becoming populated: 1,154 rooms in the Porta Romana area. All around, a chaos of construction sites. Inside, a world populated by athletes and closed to the world. Yesterday, exception: it was open. Let’s tell it in 10 curiosities.
1) The rooms – Exchange of drying rack with TV
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The Village will become a student residence and the genre is the same: university rooms. There are 1,700 beds for 42 delegations, with sheets, towels, a beauty bag with the words “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together” (for an ambitious toilet) ready for each one, slippers in the sense of multiple sockets yes, slippers in the sense of slippers no. The bathroom has a bidet, a strange object not identified by some people. The TV? There isn’t.
2) The bed – It makes three for you
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The bed at the Olympics always causes discussion. Is it hard? Is it soft? Is it cardboard? In Milan, apparently everything is fine. The mat is tripartite and customizable, big words to say that it has three parts that can be assembled and selected by each athlete. Margherita Ostoni, Italian hockey player, from Milan who doesn’t go home to sleep, approves: “I have back problems but I sleep very well here”.
3) The canteen – Restaurant from 37 euros
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Hunger? Two canteens ready for 3,400 meals: every day you cook 3,000 eggs and 450 kg of pasta. Not a symbol of democracy, here: the one for staff and volunteers is a sad room, the one for the athletes almost a restaurant. Yesterday’s menu: strips of stewed turkey breast, hake with oil and lemon, parmesan, morsels of mozzarella, sweet corn, pizza. For vegans, there is a dedicated corner. For celiacs, too. If you manage to get in, you can buy a ticket: it costs 37 euros.
4) The stars – Arianna lives here
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But why, can you enter the Olympic Village? If they invite you, yes: there are special permissions. Can you even sleep? Let’s not exaggerate. Wandering the streets, you come across familiar faces. The Italians in hockey, speed skating, figure skating and short track are almost all there, including Arianna Fontana. The Americans, too, including the big names: Jordan Stolz, speed skating phenomenon, is at home.
5) Geopolitics – A concrete atlas
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Nations hang signs on the windows (TEAM FINLAND), acronyms (CZE) or flags. It looks like a concrete atlas. How are we doing with politics? The United States and Denmark don’t border, so they don’t argue over Greenland. Israel has only one athlete in Milan. The Russian building is not there, because the Russians compete as Neutral Individual Athletes. Ukrainian flags could not be seen yesterday and on site they explained: there are no geographical bans. Ah, at the entrance there is the Olympic Truce Wall, signed by IOC president Kirsty Coventry and various institutional guests.
6) Italy – 77 on four floors
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Italy is a world apart because it has a building branded with the words “Italia Team”, the most elegant: 77 athletes occupy the fourth to seventh floors, with Australians, Austrians and Slovaks as neighbors. The rooms are double (many) or single (fewer). On the floors there are rooms for exercise bikes, a medical room, a lounge with an elegant transparent table football table. The modular medal collection is very nice (with many golds, hopefully).
7) The gym – Squats at 3 am
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A question arises: but when you don’t sleep, what do you do in the Village? The gym is always useful and does not require reservations: whoever arrives first can be seated without queuing. The machinery is plentiful and usable even at night. For physical sleepwalkers.
8) Temptations – Coca Cola and video games
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Those who want to fraternize at night can go down to the common areas and meet other athletes (even if the data on condoms distributed, bounced on all the sites at the Paris Games, is not heard here). For less busy evenings, video games, table football, air hockey and free vending machines are available. You can’t deny anyone a Coca Cola, just don’t tell the nutritionist.
9) Religion – A room for everyone
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Those who are more of a sacred person should know that in the Village there is a multi-denominational prayer room, where no distinction is made between religions. Under spirituality, also interesting are a “mind zone” for meditation and a kind of igloo built from a brand of beer (the kind you drink with lemon) where, in the morning, you do yoga.
10) Elections – The booth is close to the frontrunners
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Yes, but the strangest thing seen in the Village? Maybe the polling station. The athletes’ representatives at the IOC need to be renewed and, at the entrance to the canteen, voting takes place complete with a booth. The candidates are on the election posters distributed around the buildings. And who wouldn’t want to give a vote to Dario Cologna, the legendary Swiss cross-country skier who won 4 golds in 3 Olympics?
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