The people of Turin have nicknamed it the 'pentola a pressione' - the pressure cooker. That's not for is square shape, but for the 7,000 tonnes of inox steel in its walls. This metal reflects the most important part of Olympic Turin, the 'Olympic district', which opens around the new Palasport centre designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, which may be named after Giovanni Agnelli. In February it will play host to the ice-hockey tournament, one of the Winter Olympics' flagship sports.

And on Monday it opened its shutters for the first time for the last test sport event in view of Turin 2006. It's a record because 30 months ago the giant structure next to the Stadio Comunale, which has been renovated for the Olympic ceremonies, did not exist. ''It is the umpteenth miracle of the Italian Olympics,'' said Agenzia Torino 2006 President Mimmo Arcidiacono. ''Last weekend the IOC Games Director Gilbert Felli visited it and said he would never have expected it to be finished so quickly.'' What's more, three bombs from the war were found during the digging stage, which meant the worksite had to stop for five months for these to be defused. In recent weeks 500 people have worked day and night to make up the lost time, coordinated by Project Manager Giorgio Fassonetti and by the head of the Olympic worksites, the agency's Deputy Director Mario Piovano. ''Seeing this structure finished is a sign that the Games are now just around the corner,'' said Piovano. ''It's a parallelepiped structure driven seven metres into the ground and held up by eight huge columns, each capable of supporting a weight of 1,500 tonnes. It cost 90 million euros. The 12,500 places in its stands can be packed away to extend the field of play, depending on the sport.'' This flexibility means that after the Olympics the Palasport can become an 'events factory', capable of hosting concerts, meetings and shows of every type, as well as international sporting events. The importance of last week's event was largely in the fact that the partial inauguration revealed the facility's beauty to the whole world. ''For the test event 6,500 places can be used,'' Piovano said. ''The other seats and fixtures will be completed by the end of November.'' The test sport event featured the women's ice-hockey 'four nations' between Canada, USA, Finland and Sweden and the men's 'six nations', as well as friendlies against the Italian men' and women's teams of Markus Sparer and Mickey Goulet. These competitions, along with the sledge hockey tournament at the renovated Torino Esposizioni facility, completed the series of Torino Ice test events.

From: Ansa.it
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