La Gazetto dello Sport led the praise for the candidature's success in returning the Olympics to Italy 20 years after Turin hosted the Winter Games.

Leading with a photo of the delegation cheering in the moments after IOC President Thomas Bach announced them as the 2026 hosts, the headline reads "SÌ giochiamo" or "Let's play".

Editor Andrea Monti led a comment piece which described a battered and contentious country showing unity and determination to achieve a team goal.

"Miracolo a Milano (e a Cortina)" - "A Milan miracle" - dominated La Repubblica's front page as the newspaper saluted a nation united.

The publication also praised Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala's message that the Milan and Cortina Organising Committee would do everything the right way, without losing time.

The #DreamingTogether motto was very apparent in the Milan Cortina 2026 final presentation, which featured Olympic champions Arianna Fontana, Michela Moioli and Sofia Goggia, and Il Messaggero played on this on its front page. 

"Giochi di squadra" or "team play" was the headline as the publication focused on not only how a united front brought about a winning 47-34 IOC members' vote victory against only rivals Stockholm Åre but how going forward the Winter Olympics can once again promote the world's fashion capital.

It raised the point that following the successful Milan Expo in 2016, the Olympic and Paralympic Games allocation can continue to see the sports and political world's combine to bring out the best of Italy.

Large screens in Milan's Piazza Gae Aulenti and Piazza Angelo di Bona in Cortina broadcast the announcement live at 6pm local time yesterday as the crowds proved that the suggested 87 per cent support in Italy was a true reflection of the nation's passion for winter sports.

Italian social media was rife with celebratory messages but none more so than from figure skater Carolina Kostner, whose message really drove home just how influential Turin 2006. 

In a poignant reminder of Turin's influence on young athletes, Kostner, an Italian flagbearer at the 2006 Games, posted on Twitter that she continues to dream, saying that the dream never ends in her quest for Olympic glory.

Kostner claimed a bronze medal at Pyeongchang 2018. 

In 2015 she received a 21-month ban for being complicit in the cover-up of 50km race walk gold medallist Alex Schwazer, who tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs on the eve of the London 2012 Olympics.