It is done. Less than 500 days before the opening of the Paris 2024 Games, the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has unveiled the place where its inescapable Casa Italia will be installed. Giovanni Malago (photo above, standing), its president, made the choice of the history with the Pré Catelan, in the heart of the Bois de Boulogne, not far from the Champs-Elysées. Casa Italia will be housed in a Napoleon III style pavilion, open to the light and surrounded by a huge garden. Inaugurated in 1856, the Pré Catelan entered the Olympic history, to have been used as decoration to the gala meal which followed the announcement by the baron Pierre de Coubertin, on June 23, 1894, of the creation of the modern Games. Presented for the first time at the Los Angeles Games in 1984, the Casa Italia has become a registered trademark, property of CONI.
