Feature: Italy's media wowed by opening ceremony of Beijing Winter Olympics

ROME, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- The 24th Olympic Winter Games got underway in Beijing on Friday with a colorful and spectacular opening ceremony that was widely applauded in the Italian media.

Set in the same "Bird's Nest" stadium that hosted the opening of the Summer Olympics in 2008, the ceremonial opening event involved some 3,000 performers, about one fifth of the number included in the 2008 Olympics.

The two-hour event received front-page coverage in most of Italian newspapers, with the daily La Repubblica's special section dedicated to the Games calling the ceremony "spectacular," and the sports channel Eurosport describing the ceremony as one that "exceeded expectations."

The ceremony was "an event the world has been waiting for," said Italy's state broadcaster RAI News.

The news coverage highlighted the ceremony's sharp and precise choreography and the spectacular visual effects, among them the snowflake-shaped placards with the names of the participating nations and regions that the performers placed on the LED (light-emitting diode) floor.

Several Italian media outlets noted what the Milan daily newspaper Corriere della Sera called Italian team's "fashionable" uniforms. Italy's 118 athletes and other team members entered the stadium in ponchos of green, white, and red, matching the colors of the country's flag.

The Italian athletes arrived in Beijing with high hopes after their team's record-setting performance in the Tokyo Summer Olympics last year. There they won 40 medals, ten of them gold.

All three of Italy's gold medal winners at the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea will compete in Beijing.

According to Giorgio Pasini, a journalist who has attended seven Olympic Games for TuttoSport, a leading Italian sports newspaper, the opening ceremonies are the "signature" of the event.

"The Olympics are a multi-sport event that includes many disciplines, some of them little known," he said.

The ceremony is "a kind of a glimpse into that world. It aims to send the message that the Games bring the world together -- not just the countries but also the athletes, who otherwise would never know each other if it wasn't for the Olympics," Pasini told Xinhua.

"We have had two Olympic Games just a few months apart," he said. "The Tokyo (Summer) Olympics, which took place a year later than scheduled due to the pandemic, and now the Games in Beijing are held as originally scheduled."