Grazie, Turin, for a pretty good Olympics

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We watch because it’s us — and U.S. — against the world, but also because there is something magical about seeing the best of the best battle opponents and themselves. In the end, while we may mourn our own team’s failures, we can appreciate the triumphs of all, no matter where they call home.

Turin wasn’t the perfect Winter Olympic city, but few host cities, including Salt Lake City in 2002, are. The problem here was the big, sprawling nature of Turin. The old city center is charming, but the only Olympic-related site located there was Medals Plaza. The rest of the indoor venues were spread out around town, islands of banners and Olympic rings and crowds in a sea of urbanity. Even the mountain events were spread over several venues in different winter sports oases separated by numbing bus rides.

People who have attended every winter edition of the Olympics for decades look back fondly at the village venues – Lake Placid, where there were huge transportation problems, and Lillehammer, which is almost universally acclaimed as the best site in at least 30 years.

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But even a columnist can’t blame Turin for being a city trying to make a name for itself, and the Torinese, as the locals call themselves, did everything they could to bring the games off successfully. And that they did, from the volunteers at the transportation hubs who stood all day in the all sorts of weather helping hopelessly addled journalists find their ways to the various venues to the perky cheerleaders who rustled pom-poms at every event, even if they had no idea what they were cheering for.

Before the Games began, we wondered if Turin could get everything ready on time. The answer was yes. Most important, the competitions went off without a hitch.

Slide show
Taking gold
Check out the best images from the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Whether the Olympics put Turin back on the map – even in Italy, where it’s viewed as something of a blue-collar backwater – remains to be seen. There are attractions here, including the national cinema museum and perhaps the best museum of ancient Egypt outside of Cairo, and it is a jumping-off place to Asti, home of the sparkling wine, and Alba, the center of the truffle trade. But it’s not Florence, Rome, Venice, Pisa, Ravenna or Parma, and it never will be.

Three weeks ago, Turin was Italy’s Detroit. Today, and forever, it’s where we saw the Flying Tomato and Hannah Teter sparkle and Bode bomb and Sasha stumble and Shani, Chad, Joey and Apolo fly.

And whether any of us come here again, it’s part of our lives forever.

Arrivederci, Torino.

And grazie.

Mike Celizic writes regularly for MSNBCSports.com and is a freelance writer based in New York.

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