The Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics (Torino 2006) was held on 10 February 2006 beginning at 20:00 CET (UTC+1) at the Stadio Olimpico in Turin, Italy.

The ceremony was attended by 35,000 spectators with the presence of numerous international and Italian guests on the stage and heads of state and government on the stands.

The theme of the program was "Passion Lives Here," and the 4000m2 stage was shaped like an anatomic heart with a mosh pit in the centre where the athletes congregated for the second half of the ceremonies.

Italian gymnast Yuri Chechi as a shaman striking an anvil with a hammer opened the first scene of the program representing the industrial past of the Piedmont region.

Mountain Folk Following the exit of the flaming skaters, the sounding of seven alphorns to the notes of the Occitan Hymn signaled the beginning of the next segment that paid tribute to the Alps and the seven Alpine countries: Italy, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany and Slovenia.

Artificial snow and life-size pine tree shapes set the mood for this segment as the stage was transformed from red to white.

Life-size cow effigies were pulled in and paraded around the stage representing the significance of the dairy farming industry in the Alpine region.

The choreography showed an animated ski jumper gliding down the take-off slope, flying through the night air and eventually landing safely in perfect form on the ground.

The ski jumper eventually made a graceful landing on the ground as performers released confetti (to represent a snowplow stop) and cheered as the segment came to a close.

Citius, altius, fortius The Sparks of Passion reentered the stadium in this segment where the largest and tallest Olympic Rings for the Opening Ceremonies would be created.

Acrobats could be seen maneuvering on three ring shaped frames floating up and down along four lattice columns on the opposite end of the stadium to the stage and the mosh pit.

The dresses were shaped as snowy mountain tops, complete with pine trees and small houses lit up by embedded lights.

Miss Italia, Edelfa Chiara Masciotta, was carrying the placard for team Italy who wore a special dress designed to pay tribute to Turin.

The march of the Olympic teams was accompanied by a selection of 1970s and 1980s American and European disco music, including "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles, "YMCA" by the Village People, "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, "Daddy Cool" by Boney M and songs by the Doobie Brothers and Eurythmics among others.

It is worth noting that not all the athletes participated in the opening ceremonies, as some may have chosen to prepare themselves for races and competitions that were scheduled the very next morning.

Sportscaster Bob Costas called it a celebration of the emergence from the dark days of the Middle Ages, embracing the intellectual pursuits of art, literature and music.

The segment started with a modern ballet performance which led from a replica of Umberto Boccioni's sculpture "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space" to a celebration of Futurism.

The second part was performed by kung-fu athletes representing futuristic soldiers, while in the final section a group of bodybuilders pushed 6 motorbikes in the center of the stadium, thus emphasizing the role played by speed and technology in Futurism.

The Dove A Song of Peace Twenty-eight acrobats climbed on a net set up on the main stage and executed their choreographed manoeuvres, spinning and flipping to the music.

Arrival of the Flame Lighting of the Cauldron The Olympic System The Olympic Torch entered the stadium in the hand of Alberto Tomba, who then passed the flame to the hands of the 1994 men's Italian cross-country skiing relay team (Marco Albarello, Giorgio Vanzetta, Maurilio De Zolt, and Silvio Fauner).

Allegro with Fire After the largest curtain yet to be built revealed him on the stage, Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, wearing a black cape embroidered with silver Olympic rings, ended the ceremony by singing Giacomo Puccini's well-known aria Nessun Dorma from the opera Turandot, which ends with the victorious line "At dawn, I shall win!"

Organizers stepped up the security measures in connection with the contemporary Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy and they insisted that the Olympic Games would be safe.