Next year’s Olympics might be called the Milan Cortina Games but it will actually be staged across a large swath of northern Italy spread over five different venue clusters.

By Elvira Pollina MILAN (Reuters) -Italy began the one-year countdown to the Winter Olympics on Thursday with a series of events designed to fuel enthusiasm for the Games that will be co-hosted by Milan and the Alpine town of Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Is it? Italy has ski resorts in abundance and spectacular mountains but one pressing concern remains rebuilding the century-old sliding center in Cortina d’Ampezzo. The International Olympic Committee has set a deadline for the end of next month for pre-certification of the Cortina track.