Earth from Space: Olympic view

With the 2026 Winter Olympics officially opening today, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission brings us a striking view of northern Italy, highlighting several key Olympic venues.

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Also known as the Milano Cortina Games, this year’s Olympics are geographically widespread, with events taking place simultaneously in different regions and venues across northern Italy, including Milan, Bormio, Livigno, Anterselva, Cortina D’Ampezzo, Predazzo, Tesero and Verona.

The upper part of this cloud-free image is dominated by the mountains and valleys of the Alps, where most venues are situated. Click on the circles to locate them on the image.

To the northeast lies Cortina D’Ampezzo, the town that lends its name to this year’s Games. Often called the Pearl of the Dolomites, Cortina sits at the heart of these dramatic mountains – also a UNESCO world heritage site. A renowned winter sports resort, Cortina also hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics.

This year’s opening ceremony will be held at the San Siro Stadium in Milan, visible as a grey area nestling below the Alps in the lower left corner of the image. Milan is Italy’s second-most populous city after Rome, with its wider metropolitan area extending across Lombardy and eastern Piedmont.

Further east, the deep blue waters of Lake Garda stand out in the centre of the image. Covering 370 sq km, Garda is the largest lake in Italy and the third largest in the Alpine region.

East of Lake Garda is the city of Verona, which will host the closing ceremony, bringing the two weeks of sporting events to an end. Verona’s historic urban architecture, such as the renowned Arena – its circular Roman amphitheatre  ̶  have earned it UNESCO World Heritage Site status. On 6 March, the Arena will also host the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Winter Games, marking the 50th anniversary of the first Paralympic Winter Games.

Moving further to the east, in the bottom right, is another famous Italian landmark: the turquoise colours of the crescent-shaped Venetian lagoon and the islands that make up the floating city of Venice along the Adriatic coast.