In Turin, Olympic Torch Manages to Light a Few Fires

Residents, Sponsors, Protesters Converge For Ceremonies

Fireworks light up the Olympic Rings during the Opening Ceremonies. "It's so lovely. . . . We hardly ever had tourists here before. Look! There's one from Russia," said a school teacher from Turin. (By Clive Rose -- Associated Press)

TURIN, Italy, Feb. 10 -- When the high-wire artist with the Olympic torch in hand began to rappel down the side of Turin's emblematic 19th century tower, the Mole Antonelliana, even the indignant fervor of youthful demonstrators from the ad hoc University Antagonistic Movement halted their protests against corporations, construction of a high speed train tunnel and the war in Iraq.

"We will always stand close to the people who defend their countries and struggle against neo-colonialism," said Chiara, a red-haired orator. "But first let's watch the torch." The protesters pulled out cell phones and began to snap digital photos.

If the first day is any indication, it looks like Turin is going to put on a low-key, maybe even sleepy, Winter Olympics. No one, not civic boosters, casual spectators, tourists or anti-globalization protesters are getting openly excited about the goings on here. Except for the intense police presence and blocked off areas of downtown, you might not know there's an Olympic festival afloat. Even the labor, peace, anti-everything protest -- an Italian specialty -- was subdued. With all the sunshine and 50 degree weather, it hardly even seemed like winter.

"It's so lovely. We are not used to all this attention. Torino is a little shy. We hardly ever had tourists here before," said Marina Lombardi, a school teacher. "Look! There's one from Russia."

Early Friday, Lombardi watched the flame go on a route that zigzagged for the next 10 hours all over the city. School children applauded politely. The most outlandish praise was tightly contained in the phrase "Che bello, che bello." How lovely. "If this was Naples, everyone would be crying hysterically and trying to grab the torch," said Giuseppe Gaetani, a retired autoworker who migrated to Turin from Naples 40 years ago. "But Turin is not like that. Sometimes, it doesn't seem like Italy."

If anything, Turin is more like nearby France than Italy. Anyone expecting an Italian festival of the sidewalk sausage-roast type with opera sung on street corners best go elsewhere, maybe Lower Manhattan or Queens. Here, traffic is orderly and hardly anybody's selling anything outside of the airy boutiques that line the quiet boulevards and inside well-lit bistros serving such fare as steak tartar and pate.

The Olympics is a corporation-heavy spectacle, and this too in its own way suppresses the customary Italian elan. Sponsors block out restaurants for their bigwigs and guests, so it's no use trying to tip for a table. At the city's famous Cambio restaurant, a client from Turin looking for his wife inside was blocked by ushers from the Visa credit card people. Visa had booked the whole room. "I'll be here long after you and your plastic cards are gone," said the miffed customer. Tickets for the Opening Ceremonies, running as high as $1,000, were either for the rich or expense-account holders.

Downtown's broad Piazza Castello would seem to be a good place for the masses to congregate, but security gets in the way. The square is totally walled off to keep anyone but ticket holders from an amphitheater where the medals will be given out.

Friday in Rome, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu delivered another of his periodic warnings and suggested that freelancers might cause trouble, especially in the context of protests against the publication of caricatures of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, in Denmark and elsewhere. "There are no indications of an international terrorist threat against the Olympics. Still we keep our guard very high, and we take into account that -- in the climate of protest that is agitating the Islamic world after the publication of the now famous caricatures -- we can't rule out an unplanned, improvised action by an individual," he told reporters.

Behind the scenes, Turin has been keeping close watch on its Islamic immigrant population and this has distanced Turin's Muslim contingent from the festivities. "We're under their feet," said Abramo Haj, a restaurant owner in Turin's Porta Palazzo district. "We can't say anything about Denmark. They say shut up or leave. They'll send us back to Morocco."

He was speaking outside a small apartment mosque that was once home ground to Bureiqi Bushta, a radical preacher expelled by Italy last year. "I don't care about Bushta. I've been here 26 years," Haj said. "We are offended by these cartoons."

"It should have been stopped at the beginning. Someone should have apologized. Now it's a red stain spreading over the world," said Abel Ila, a construction worker from Morocco.

Friday's final go-round of the torch within Turin city limits was considered a vulnerable event, but it went off without a hitch. Torch processions had been blocked in several Italian cities during the flame's month-long tour of Italy. As the flame neared the Mole (pronounced MOE-lay), protesters gathered at the Humanities Department building of Turin University, from which hung a long red banner that said "Conflict Lives Here." It was a spoof on the Turin Olympic slogan "Passion Lives Here." The protesters waved signs opposing construction of the Olympic bobsled run and a tunnel for a high speed train, Iraqi and Palestinian flags, red Communist flags and a banner that said "Laura Bush Go Home." The first lady was in Turin for the Opening Ceremonies.

"We're not against sport, but all this corporate advertising and environmental damage. They built that pharaonic bobsled run and no one in Italy even bobsleds," said Matteo de Marchi, 18, a student of international politics. Nearby, someone was trying to burn a flag with the Samsung logo on it. Samsung is an Olympic sponsor.

When the torch reached street level and resumed its trip through Turin, the students marched off to the university administration and said they would be back Saturday, when Laura Bush was scheduled to visit.