Fiat is marking the 20th Winter Olympic Games in Turin with a host of events to make the Olympics even more of an occasion. It will all be happening at Casa Fiat, the original structure they have created in the Sponsor Village (an extensive area in Piazza Solferino housing the stands of all the main event sponsors).

Visitors will also be able to marvel at the Lancia Ice Bar, an extraordinary watering hole made out of crystal-clear ice from Lapland, where the public can drink any type of beverage in glasses made out of ice in spectacular surroundings. The activities organised by Fiat Auto also spill out of the Sponsor Village into some of the trendiest night spots in the Piedmontese capital, where visitors can have fun, listen to music, dance and get to know the athletes sponsored by Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo and Commercial Vehicles.

Casa Fiat

Casa Fiat in the Sponsor Village is a structure covering some one thousand square metres housing the Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo and Light Commercial Vehicle brands. Casa Fiat is open every day from 10 am to midnight to allow visitors to take time out to enjoy the host of events Fiat have organised. For example, three big screen TVs allow visitors to watch all the Olympic races live, all the official Olympiad videos and many candid backstage shots of the athletes sponsored by Fiat Auto: including Carolina Kostner, Giacomo Kratter and Giorgio Rocca. Besides the big screens, the general public will also be able to get to know some of the latest Fiat Auto models at close hand: including a Doblò Cargo customised in the colours of the Italian national ice hockey team, a Grande Punto in the colours of the Fiat Freestyle Team, an Alfa Brera, a Panda sporting the Jamaican flag, a Lancia Ypsilon Ice ‘06 and the Fiat Sedici (mascot of the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games).

Casa Fiat will be awash with music and entertainment thanks to Play Radio – the RCS MediaGroup radio station. The radio will broadcast many live programmes (produced in conjunction with Gazzetta dello Sport), featuring DJs, Olympic stars and many other guests from inside and outside the world of sport. Not to mention the fact that the Play Radio presenters will involve visitors in the Play Club programme (Monday to Friday at 9 pm) and will seek out new Dot Players by holding trials.

The Fiat brand will also celebrate the Olympics together with Budweiser, the well-known American beer and official sponsor of the 20th Olympic Games in Turin. Both brands, thrown together by the Olympic spirit and their sponsorship of the Freestyle events, have organised shared events for all entertainment and winter sport aficionados. The Casa Fiat lounge will also be holding a happy hour to the accompaniment of music and Budweiser beer. Every day, from 7 pm to 9 pm, the Bud Crew will keep the good times rolling by involving members of the public in entertaining games and stunts.

The public will also be able to buy Fiat, Lancia or Alfa Romeo merchandising items on Winter Olympic themes at Casa Fiat and also admire the host of items used by the Olympic athletes during the Games warm-up races: the skis of Giorgio Rocca, who won 5 slaloms in a row in the world championship; Cristian Ghedina’s helmet; the ski boots Karen Putzer wore when she won the bronze medal in Salt Lake City; Carolina Kostner’s ice-skates; a hockey stick from the Italian national team and the famous Jamaican bobsleigh. And more: visitors to Casa Fiat will also be able to challenge world table football experts or get stuck into thrilling contests with radio-controlled Panda Cross Contest Big Foot cars.
 

As if that wasn’t enough, Fiat's partner Kodak has set up a special station inside Casa Fiat where visitors can print digital pictures downloaded from your mobile phone, memory stick or CD-ROM straight onto photographic paper. Lastly, every day journalists from the national daily La Stampa will interview the athletes who star in the Olympic Games in a special area of Casa Fiat. A detailed programme of the numerous events will be published in a special Olympics section of the paper every day. Casa Fiat will be opened on 9 February at 8.30 pm.

Lancia Ice Bar

The Lancia Ice Bar in the Turin 2006 Sponsor Village is truly unique because it is made out of a ton of crystal-clear ice obtained by freezing water from the River Torne in Sweden (Lapland). This stunning bar is the outcome of a joint venture between the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi and the Lancia brand. It will be open from 9 to 27 February every day from 10 am to 10 pm and will allow visitors to sip fruit juices, aperitifs or drinks out of ice glasses – what else?

The Lancia Ice Bar will organise themed evenings, meetings and presentations and be presided over by its hostess, the figure skating champion Carolina Kostner, proponent and star of the Lancia Ice project. Fiat's staff will also wrap up guests in cosy cloaks and gloves from Lapland to enable them to keep the temperature inside the Lancia Ice Bar at a constant -5°C. The bar's opening is planned for Thursday 9 February at 9.30 pm.

Other events planned in Turin

Every evening – from 7 pm to 2 am, from 8 to 26 February – the Murazzi waterfront area on the River Po will be the setting for the Heart and Passion Multimedia Laser Show. This spectacular show organised by Alfa Romeo will involve the projection of images, writing and films onto a sheet of water (produced by two platforms in the middle of the river). These will be visible from the Murazzi, Corso Cairoli and the Piazza Vittorio bridge. To be more specific, a 5 minute film extolling Turin’s beauties and expertise will be followed by a second two-minute film promoting the Alfa Romeo brand on the theme “Always follow your heart”. Every hour, the water film will fall and a laser show will begin. The beams, shooting out from the bank, will light up Turin’s night sky with entrancing lights and special effects.

Throughout the Olympic period, a Fiat FreestyleTeam piste bar will also be open in the Cantina Vibì, in Via delle Rosine 1 in Turin, where freestyle fans can meet members of the Fiat Freestyle Team. The opening is set for 11 February at 7.30 pm with ice skating showing on the screens and an exhibition by Truly Design, the Turin street artists who paint their skateboards using state-of-the-art techniques. The Jam Club discotheque in the River Po Murazzi area will stage three big nights out, all starting at 11 pm. The club will open on February 11 with a Jamaican evening attended by the Jamaican bobsleigh team. February 18 will be the turn of freestyle, featuring members of the Fiat Freestyle Team; Feb 26 will see the Alfa Romeo Red Passion Night, an opportunity for everyone to celebrate the end of the Games attended by the athletes who are sponsored by Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo and Light Commercial Vehicles.