Italy, Slovenia, Austria and then again Italy. Tomorrow the most international stage of the "Journey" of the Olympic Fire of Turin 2006 will leave Gorizia. And from there "the message of brotherhood among all the peoples of the world, of which the Olympic Fire has always been the bearer, will find new strength". 20 torch-bearers will be engaged in the relay race, which will cut through the city, from 9.49 am to 10.38 am, when in Piazza Transalpina the last Italian torch-bearer will pass the Olympic Fire to the first Slovenian torch-bearer, at a time of high symbolic value, which bears witness to the bond of friendship existing between the two countries, just where a symbol of partition used to stand". The torch-bearers include Alessandra Vuga, 48, born in Gorizia, who explained her presence: “I received from my parents, who are dead, an enlightened upbringing, in a border city in which the events of their lives might have taken them very far from the testimony of peace, antiracism, brotherhood and friendship in which they brought us up. It would be a great honour to bear the Olympic fire. In my heart, I would be doing it with them”. Vuga will pass the torch to the Solvenian torch-bearer, Jure Franko, the first athlete from former Yugoslavia to have won an Olympic medal at the Winter Games(silver medal in giant slalom) in Sarajevo 1984. The whole initiative was presented today at the City Hall in Gorizia during a press conference attended by Mirko Brulc, Mayor of Nova Gorica. After Gorizia, the torch will move on through Slovenia, in Nova Gorica and Ljubljana, and Austria, at Klagenfurt. Slovenia and Austria are just two of the 7 foreign countries visited by the Olympic Fire of Turin 2006: Greece, the Vatican, the Republic of San Marino, Switzerland (January 30th) and France (February 6th).
