The curtain has come down on the Italy Pavilion of Expo 2025 Osaka, which celebrated its farewell on the last day of the universal exhibition with an event filled with emotion, symbolism and national pride.
    The closing event acted as a bridge to the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, represented by the official torches, the stars of an evocative, symbolic handover.
    The torches - a blue and a golden one, light and iridescent - were unveiled during the inauguration ceremony at the Italy Pavilion attended by Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
    Now, they have been handed over to torchbearers Carolina Kostner and Martina Caironi and will travel back to Italy.
    Their design, said architect Carlo Ratti, was inspired by "Japanese torches from the 1960s and 70s, among the most essential in history", created to show off "the flame at the centre, reducing the superfluous to a bare minimum".
    The closing ceremony, organized by the Commissioner General for Italy Mario Vattani, together with the Consul General in Osaka Filippo Manara, was attended by the CEO of the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation, Andrea Varnier, as well as exceptional guests from Japan's sports world including figure skater Satoko Miyahara and Paralympic runner Shinya Wada The Italian Army Band performed, conquering the Japanese public with a repertoire including music by Giuseppe Verdi and traditional Roman and Neapolitan songs.
    "It was an exceptional day, a triumph for Italy", said Vattani, recalling how the Italy Pavilion has also obtained Expo's most prestigious prize in the category of 'Theme Development' recognizing "not only the beauty or content exhibited, but the idea of Italy, the ability to work as a team and propose a vision of the future".
    The prize had never been awarded before to an Italian pavilion.
    Varnier spoke about the "symbolic handover between two major events", highlighting that "there could be no better place than Expo to start the torches' journey".
    The CEO of the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation also said the flame represents "the universal values uniting people and making society better".
    "It is a great emotion to bring the torches back to Italy", said figure skater Carolina Kostner.
    "Soon, the relay that will bring the flame across all provinces will begin: it will be a moment of pride for the whole country", she said.
    Paralympic athlete Martina Caironi echoed Kostner's words, speaking about a "symbol representing the values of sport and inclusion" which is ready to be "passed on from hand to hand until the opening ceremonies".
    Consul Manara, finally, stressed the strategic value of sport as a tool of economic diplomacy.
    "The diplomacy of sport is today an integral part of the diplomacy of growth.
    "It represents values of loyalty and team work that embody the spirit of the country system, committed to reaching the ambitious target of 700 billion euros" worth of "exports a year", he noted.
    Meanwhile the young athletes of Kansai University performed on an ice skating rink to the music of Turandot by Giacomo Puccini in a moment of pure emption.
    It was a tribute to Italian culture that electrified the public and sealed the last page of an extraordinary adventure.
    With the closure of the Italy Pavilion, Expo bid farewell to a Country that is able to unite innovation, art and sport in one storyline.
    And the next appointment is back home, at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Games, where that same flame will continue to shine.
   
   

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