Italy's Winter Olympics promised sustainability. But in Cortina, environmentalists warn the Games could scar these mountains for decades.

The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics opened on Friday with a glittering ceremony at the San Siro stadium echoed by festivities at Games venues across the snow-capped Italian Alps. The extravaganza reflected the most geographically widespread Olympics in history.

Snow has fallen in the Italian Alps just in time for the start of the Winter Olympics, dispelling fears of artificially-covered tracks winding through lush green mountainsides. But with snow cover in the Italian Alps down by half in the past 100 years as the climate warms,

A BRITISH pensioner has died after getting into difficulty while scaling a wall of ice in the Italian Alps. Stephen Lismore, 72, was descending the ice-covered rock face with a friend when the

As the Winter Olympics get underway in Milan and across the Italian Alps, our correspondent looks back at a bold pledge made by the organizers: that these games would be sustainable. They said they would slash the event’s carbon footprint and protect sensitive mountain ecosystems.