Welcome to the first fan site dedicated to Federica Faiella

This is not a day by day report, otherwise I know I'll never finish it ;) So, just some commentary to the pics I took during these two weeks :)

- The Olympic Village -

Just a couple of weeks before Olys started, my friends and I were informed that as "technical volunteers" we could stay at the Olympic Village!!! Wow!!! Of course we all cancelled the reservations we had made in B&B or other places, how could we miss the chance to stay there?!?! Eleonora and I arrived in Torino on Friday night, the 10th, just while the Opening Ceremony was taking place. Police everywhere at the entrance, we passed the mag & bag, and then, there we were!!!! We couldn't believe it!!!!! The village was almost desert, with everyone at the Opening, but for us it already looked wonderful ;) We were so excited that we couldn't stop jumping while pushing the trolley with our heavy luggage :) Outside every house were hanging the flags of the countries living there, and the Russians had lovely lovely mascottes in the grass in front of one of their houses...
In the following days I took really many pics around the village, here are some:

		The home of the British team!!
South Korea	Ukraine	Sweden
	The Canadians had definitely the biggest flag... how did they get to bring it here?! They'd need a whole suitcase just for it ;)
		I love Ceburashka (don't know how to write it!), the Russian mascotte! I took a pic with it the last night at the village ;) It's sooo cute!!
	<-- Loved the banners supportin the Japanese team! The Swiss Olympic logo -->
		The Finnish team hung banners and posters everywhere!
		Joubert and Dambier going back to the French building...
	The home of Italian athletes!!
This is the beautiful arch above the bridge connecting the Olympic village and the 8Gallery at Lingotto.

- Around the town -

During a couple of days when we had no shifts, we took the chance of walking around the city center.
The "Sponsor village" had been set up in Piazza Solferino; there you could visit all sponsors' stands, trying to get pins with the Olympic logo ;) But the most interesting one was at Coke's stand, where you could have a picture of you carrying the Olympic torch, with a view of the town in the background, and then put it on a pin!!
Have to say that Torino looked really great, beautiful and elegant, clean and perfect. In Italy we tend to consider it as a "sad" town, but during the Olys it was just the opposite, brilliant and full of life, you could feel that a great event was taking place there, something unique! Also the people met in the street were all so kind when we asked for some info; they hads waited and prepared so much for this event, and finally it was really happening, and they were so proud of it! They just wanted to offer to all guests the very best of their town :)
You could not access the medal plaza during the day, but had a quick look at it.
We went visiting some of the "homes" of olympic teams, such as Casa Canada and Casa Russia (Russky Dom!), where you could find a store with all the official olympic sportswear and gadgets.

	<-- With Emanuele, Ele, Angela and Chiara posing outside the sponsors' village :)

This is "Casa Canada"! It was very nice inside, with a presentation of 2006 Olympic Games in Vancouver, and the National Guard in the famous red jacket! I couldn't help buying the red T-shirt of the Canadian team ;)

		If you bought something at Russky Dom, they gave you a pass to access the icerink on the roof of the building!!
	The Olympic flame, burning at the Olympic Stadium... we saw it every time coming back to the village, it gave you a strange feeling...

- Palavela -

Together with Palaghiaccio Tazzoli, Palavela was "our" Olympic venue, the place where we spent countless hours doing our shifts, watching practice and competitions, often starting very early in the morning, and maybe going on until late, almost never sitting down, but we could not miss a single second of this magic event :)
My job there was "Monitor", one of the people around the field of play (just around the rink, at the ice level), checking passes, checking that cameras and photographers don't go where they shouldn't, and things like these... It's great as you are so close to the action!!
I should have had only one competition-shift, during Men LP, and even if I wanted so much to see some icedancing, I wouldn't have changed this shift for anything!!!!! Potentially this competition could have been breathtaking, but unfortunately there were many mistakes :( Even Plushenko (ok, he was the best, no doubt about it!) didn't skate as he usually does, he was kind of lacking energy, especially in the step sequences... a bit disappointing. The two free skates that I enjoyed the most were surely those of Van Der Perren and of Lysacek, simply great, they were able to really give emotions to the audience!
It was so difficult to watch the other competitions on tv, we felt we _had_ to be there!!! Luckily in the "shopping centre" area of the village there were always many tvs showing all the events taking place, so it was easy for us to find a free one and "monopolyze" it with figure skating ;)
As mentioned before, after Men LP I should have had no more shifts during comps, but Mr Ernesto was sooooooooo kind and gave me his shift during the Original Dance, as he knew that for me it would have meant a lot to be there :) Seeing the outcome, I don't know if it was a good thing or not, as the OD was simply devastating!! So many falls, it really hurt to see that, both Fede & Massi on the straight line.... the scary fall of Marie France Dubreuil, and then, the most heartbreaking one, that of Barbara & Maurizio... I just couldn't react at the moment, but as soon as the comp was over, after Belbin & Agosto left the ice, I just couldn't keep back tears anymore, and started cying..... ;(
I had bought a ticket for the FD, but I wasn't looking forward to it that much after what happened the day before... In the end I got to convince myself that anyway it was worth going, even only to give all the support possible to Fede & Massi and to Barbara & Maurizio, and then just enjoy the skating. I have to say that I was glad I went! It was a chance to hear again our fav FD music "Govinda" :p, to watch the Kerrs great Scottish routine... I was so tense while watching the Italians, I almost couldn't breathe, but this time everything went well, and I was so proud of them, they skated their heart out. I was hoping that Navka & Kostomarov didn't win, I don't like them at all, and would have preferred to see Belbin & Agosto on top of the podium (I wasn't a fan until I saw them skating live during practices, they're really amazing!!!!). Oh well, it wasn't surely the Olympic Free Dance I dreamed, but at least, I was there! ;)

<-- The skates made of grass outside Palavela

The figure skating logo outside Palavela -->

<-- The mascots Neve & Gliz

Inside the arena, Zambonis waiting to get in action-->

Ready to take the ice...

Fede & Massi

-Backstage -

After the Free Dance my friends and I decided to go backstage, here are some pics (a bit blurry ones, but I didn't "dare" to use the flash, I wasn't supposed to be there :p).



	Once back home, during one of my night walks around the village with Melania, we met Massimo, quite happy of his FD, and I asked him a pic :)

On Wednesday I left very early in the morning, as I had to be back home and to the office at 10.30 at the latest! But on Friday afternoon I left the office again heading for Torino, I didn't want to miss the gala!! I arrived to the Olympic Village, just the time to leave my backpack and then I rushed to the arena, where I met Eleonora and Melania. Federica & Massimo skated during the opening, a nice and elegant program. I really enjoyed every performance of the night! Barbara & Maurizio had back all their charisma and the confidence they lacked during the last two sections of the competition. Plushenko tonight was great again and showed how much he deserved this title (maybe here he was better than in competition :p). I loved listening to Edwin Marton playing both for him and for Totmianina & Marinin :) I wouldn't have missed this gala for anything, who cares if travelling right after work was tiring! :p As last year at Euros, after the gala the atmosphere backstage was funny and relaxed, and finally all the volunteers could take the photos that were forbidden all Olys long ;) Federica and Massimo came calling us, as they wanted a picture all together on the Kiss & Cry as last year. It was very nice of them :) I finally got a pic with Jeff Buttle (when I had met him at the village I didn't dare asking him a photo.. and I was regretting it so much, but in the end I got it!! ;) ) and with Ben Agosto... I would have liked one with Johnny Weir too, but I didn't see him leaving! And of course a pic with Barbara and Maurizio too. Unfortunately it was also time to say bye to Palavela, after these two magic weeks, but couldn't go away without a pic "on the ice" :)

- Going away -

These two weeks passed sooo quickly, I cannot believe it, we waited more than 4 years, and now in a second it was already over ;( I didn't want to leave!!!! I wanted to stay there, to keep living at the village with all the athletes, in this that looked like a dream! Our last day, Melania and I had a last walk around the town, where we spotted again the Armanian guy going around alone without Govinda... I got a photo with the nice Japanese dancers Watanabe & Kido (they were surprised to see that I knew who they are :p), and this time we also managed to eat in the athletes cantine :p It's always sad to go away, but this village and everything else from these Olys will always be alive in my memories!!!!

- The End! -