The ANNOTICO Report

It is difficult to comprehend how deeply the loss of the entire 18 member
"Torino Granata" soccer team, in an airplane crash, in 1949, 56 years ago,
still affects the psyche of the city of Turin.

For instance, in this article about the upcoming 2006 Turin, Italy Winter
Olympics, that will be a source of great pride and economic benefit to
Turin, there are only EIGHT paragraphs about the Winter Olympics and THIRTY
SEVEN paragraphs about Torino Granata.

There was not a single word about the 1956 Winter Olympics at Cortina
d'Ampezzo, the ONLY other Winter Olympics held in Italy.

Torino Granata was the winner of four consecutive Italian national club
championships in the mid/late 1940s, and filled the roster of the National
Italian team. In a time immediately following WWII, Granata was a much
needed morale booster.

Turino's revolutionary alignment, and the legendary skills of it's players
transfixed the nation, like none other.

In Italy, soccer rules the sports scene. Torino and Juventus are among the
sport's leading sources of tradition — Juventus in black and white stripes,
Torino in a distinctive blood-red jersey called granata.

But in Italy, and in Italian communities around the world, the tale of
Torino Calcio (soccer) binds the generations — even if one roots for the
city's other soccer team, Juventus, or one of the dozens based elsewhere
across Italy.

A NOTE: The Reporter, Alan Abrahamson, must be very young, or very
unworldly to speak as
if the 1949 crash "defines" Turin, rather than just created a Very harsh
"recent" wound.
See: "A Quick Look at Turin" at the bottom .

Redefining Moment: Town playing host to Games gets chance to show it is
more than site of 1949 plane crash that claimed Torino soccer team

Los Angeles Times
By Alan Abrahamson
Times Staff Writer
February 10, 2005

TURIN, Italy — It is nearly 56 years now. Still they come, pilgrims from
across Italy, Italians from around the world. Here, at the wall behind the
church on the high hill, one of life's truths is made plain: Death can
claim even the greatest of champions, but the heart and soul of a people
can carry on.

In May 1949, an airplane carrying the Torino Calcio team, arguably the best
soccer squad in the world, crashed in heavy fog into the back of the
Superga Basilica. All 31 people on board perished — 18 of them soccer
players.

They had won four straight Italian championships and filled much of the
roster of the Italian national team. After the years of Mussolini and
fascism, after the humiliation of World War II, these men had shown the
world what Italians could do.

The loss of that team is a defining memory of this region — one that
infuses preparations for the 2006 Winter Olympics, which open here one year
from today.

"The past here is present," said Claudio Sala, a Torino star in the 1970s
who still lives in the area.

"Being a Torinese, having the Olympics at home is a very emotional thing,"
said Nadia Cortassa, who finished fifth in the women's triathlon at the
2004 Summer Games in Athens. "It is a very big opportunity."

A number of logistical and financial issues remain for Turin 2006
organizers and the Italian government, including transportation to the
mountain venues and a shortage of hotel rooms. For months, the organizing
committee has been confronting a revenue shortfall of about $200 million;
at a meeting earlier this week in Rome, the government agreed to cover it.
A number of Olympic-related sites remain under construction but appear all
but certain to be completed on target, Olympic officials said.

Most important, several officials said, the organizing committee appears to
be operating with urgency and decisiveness. Most credit the change to the
oversight of Mario Pescante, a veteran IOC member and Italian government
undersecretary, and Luciano Barra, an experienced Italian sports official,
who were brought on board late last year.

"Even the logistics can be solved," Barra said Wednesday. "Decisions must
be taken with courage."

The developments have buoyed preparations with a renewed sense of optimism
as the International Olympic Committee's ruling executive board gathers
here today for a series of "one year to go" events.

"The 2006 Games is the chance not only for Turin to shine but for the whole
of Italy to shine, to showcase to the world what it can offer," IOC
President Jacques Rogge said.

In Italy, and in Italian communities around the world, the tale of Torino
Calcio binds the generations — even if one roots for the city's other
soccer team, Juventus, or one of the dozens based elsewhere across Italy.

To many, the Torino team of the mid- to late-1940s remains il grande Torino.

"We lost an expression of our excellence," former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo
said.

"A traumatic wound," said Luigi Ballerini, a poet and author who teaches
modern and contemporary Italian literature at UCLA.

In Italy, soccer rules the sports scene. Torino and Juventus are among the
sport's leading sources of tradition — Juventus in black and white stripes,
Torino in a distinctive blood-red jersey called granata.

Valentino Castellani, who now heads the Turin 2006 Olympic organizing
committee, grew up a Torino fan in Varmo, a small village in northeastern
Italy, where he had turned 9 in 1949.

"We would go around in the village writing on the walls, 'Viva Toro' ['Go
Torino'] and 'Abbasso Juve' ['Down With Juventus']," he recalled.

Enzo Viscusi, a senior executive with the Italian energy conglomerate ENI,
grew up a Juventus fan in southern Italy. Nonetheless, he said of the
Torino team, "I can still name all the players…. It was Italy's pride."

In the 1930s, Juventus dominated Italian soccer. At the end of 1941,
however, Torino adopted an alignment in which the 11 players on the field
lined up as three forwards, two attacking midfielders, two defensive
midfielders, three defenders and a goalkeeper.

This "innovative and rational system of play" struck a balance between the
"individual virtuosity" of stars such as team captain Valentino Mazzola and
"collective cohesion," France-based author Paul Dietschy wrote last year in
the scholarly journal Soccer and Society.

It also "echoed the modernization of an economy in Turin that had Fiat as
its forefront," he added, referring to the automotive giant that has long
served as the city's economic base.

"After the war, after all the suffering and destruction, it was a symbol of
a renaissance of Italy," echoed Ugo Colombino, an economics professor at
the University of Turin.

Torino won the Italian national club championship in 1943 and again in
1946, 1947 and 1948, with no formal championship held in 1944 and 1945
because of the war.

Beppe Nizza, 73, recalled that he often rode his bicycle from his home in
Canale to the nearby town where Torino trained.

"There was a player, Eusebio Castigliano. He used to see me and smile,"
said Nizza, who still lives in Canale. "He could throw a coin and back kick
it with the heel of his shoe over his head and into his pocket."

On May 3, 1949, Torino played a charity match in Lisbon, Portugal.

Returning home the next day in dense fog, the team's propeller-driven plane
crashed shortly after 5 p.m. into the back wall of the basilica, high on
the ridge of the hills east of town. The cause remains unclear.

Thousands trooped to the crash site, which holds the tombs of Italian
royalty, the Savoys, who had made Turin their base since the 15th century.

Local lore has it that the plane almost cleared the hill.

"If they were 10 meters higher, they would have passed," Castellani said.
"But they didn't. That was their destiny."

More than 500,000 people turned out for the funeral, according to newspaper
accounts.

"My father and I had to run … to avoid being trampled," Nizza recalled.
"Everyone was crying. We were devastated."

Italian officials awarded Torino the 1949 championship, but a long slump
has followed, interrupted only by a championship in 1976. Over the last
several years, Torino has mostly been relegated to the second division of
Italian soccer.

Juventus, meanwhile, has known great recent success and become known
worldwide. Its name ranks with aficionados among the likes of Britain's
Manchester United.

Nonetheless, today's Torino players feel a strong connection to the granata
jersey.

"The emotion when you sign a contract here — it's not just for the money,"
said goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino. "It's tradition."

"Fight with honor," reads one of the granata-colored banners strung across
one end of the stadium for home games like Monday
night's 2-0 victory over Bari.

"I'm a Torino fan because my father is a Torino fan," said Piergiorgio
Orla, 44, an optometrist. "This is the story of this city."

A bank executive from Venice, Elisabetta Deste, 46, stood this week at the
spot of the crash. She had made time in a busy day — afternoon meetings,
long train ride back to Venice in the evening — just to see the shrine,
which was decorated with a poster, wreath, T-shirt and three sprays of
flowers.

A commemorative Torino Calcio postcard bore the message, written in
Italian: "Remember always … with love."

"You know, we all know, what happened in 1949," Deste said with a sigh.

Castellani, who had been Turin's mayor before heading the 2006 committee,
said the crash remains a sad and powerful memory for the city.

Even so, he said, "with the Olympic Games … we can celebrate."

2006 WINTER GAMES AT A GLANCE

• When: Feb. 10-26, 2006.
• Site: Turin in northwest Italy, near the French border, in the Piedmont
region.
• Athletes: 2,500 from 85 countries.
• Fans: Up to 1.5 million expected.
• Sports and disciplines: Biathlon, bobsled, Nordic combined, curling,
freestyle skiing, hockey, luge, figure skating, speedskating, short-track
speedskating, ski jumping, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, skeleton,
snowboard.

*
BY THE NUMBERS

• 3: Olympic Villages: Torino, Bardonecchia and Sestriere.
• 15: Disciplines: biathlon, bobsled, Nordic combined, curling, freestyle,
ice hockey, figure skating, speedskating, ski jumping, Alpine skiing,
cross-country skiing, short-track, skeleton, luge and snowboard.
• 17: Days of competitions: Feb. 10 to 26, 2006.
• 84: Titles at stake.
• 85: National Olympic Committees.
• 650: Judges and umpires.
• 2,500: Athletes.
• 2,500: Coaches and national team officials.
• 2,300: Representatives of the IOC, National Olympic committees and
federations.
• 6,000: Guests of sponsors.
• 10,000: Media.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/
la-sp-oly10feb10,1,1775048.story?coll=la-headl
ines-sports&ctrack=1&cset=true

A QUICK LOOK AT TURIN:

Turin went from Roman camp and medieval town, to the first capital of
Italy, in 1861.
At Palazzo Carignano, the magnificent chamber of the First Subalpine
Parliament is still intact.

Magnificent Royal Residences and imposing church domes bear witness to the
greatness of architects such as Guarino Guarini, Filippo Juvarra and
Ascanio Vitozzi, that, from the late 17th century, transformed Turin into
one of the capitals of Baroque art.

Turin has 40 museums, that can satisfy everyone's curiosity, and include
"The Museo Nazionale del Cinema" housed in the truly astounding Mole
Antonelliana, the GAM - "Galleria Civica di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea",
which exhibits paintings by Chagall, Modigliani and Picasso among others,
and "The Museo Egizio", the third in the world after the one in Cairo and
the British Museum for the quantity and importance of the objects
conserved: more than 30,000 pieces narrate 5000 years of history through
art, religion and daily life in the time of the great pharahos.

Inside the Cathedral, Turin conserves one of the most important items for
the Christian religion, the Holy Shroud, or sheet that is thought to have
been wound around the body of Christ. The whole city is starred with
churches and religious monuments.

Turin boasts 18 kilometres of arcades that criss-cross the city centre.
They offer protection from both rain and hot summer sun, allowing you to
admire in all comfort the windows of designer fashion and Italian
design.Wander through the stalls in Piazza della Repubblica, where the
biggest open-air market in Europe is held; if you like antiques, do not
miss the Gran Bal.

Turin will surprise you with its millions of proposals both for day and
night; each corner of the city is alive with a variety of meetings and
initiatives: theatre, dance, shows of every kind, from the classical to the
contemporary: not only big events, but also the pleasure of listening to
live music in the city's many nightspots.
Turin is the home of the Agnellis, Italy's leading industrial family,
which controls Fiat SpA and a host of other important companies.
Additionally there are chocolates made by Ferrero SpA and coffees and
coffee makers by Luigi Lavazza SpA.
Turin and its nearby rival Milan form two ends of an industrial corridor
that is easily the most important in Italy and one of the most powerful in
all of Europe.