And speedskater Chris Witty of Park City loved every minute of it.

"Torino is the third Games in which I marched in the Opening Ceremony," Witty said, "and it will be the most meaningful."

The five-time Olympian in speedskating and cycling carried the flag ahead of the U.S. Olympic Team during the traditional parade of nations at Olympic Stadium, then took a seat with some 2,500 other athletes from at least 80 nations and watched organizers complete a sumptuous three-hour show to signal the start of the 20th Winter Games.

Many of the 52 athletes on the U.S. team who live or train in Utah were among the estimated 35,000 people who attended a program that dazzled with color, artistry and light. Salt Lake City's Zach Lund was not among them, after being banned from the Olympics just hours earlier because of a failed drug test.

Luminaries such as Luciano Pavarotti, Yoko Ono and Sophia Loren took part, while ambassadors including first lady Laura Bush and Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi watched from the seats. Four-time Italian Olympian Stefania Belmondo ultimately lit the towering Olympic caldron by igniting a breathtaking procession of fireworks, and International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the world "marveled at the spectacle."

"This was amazing," U.S. short-track speedskater Anthony Lobello said. "This was more than I ever imagined the Opening Ceremony to be. It's greater than portrayed on television."

Meant to evoke the host nation's "passion" for life and sport - that's the central theme to these Games - the ceremony focused on the past, present and future in Italy. Renaissance characters played a role, as did passages from The Divine Comedy, a sleek red sports car, and even cows and maidens from the nearby Alps.

Following the parade of nations, Rogge and organizing committee President Valentino Castellani spoke from amid a giant oval filled with the athletes, meant to serve as a figurative piazza and focus attention on those who will compete over the next 17 days.

"You are the heart of these Games, which were created for you," Rogge told the athletes. "Give these Games the magic that we all desire, not only through your performance, but also, and above all, through your conduct. . . . Please compete in a spirit of fair play, mutual understanding and respect and, above all, compete cleanly by refusing doping."

Taking a page from the Salt Lake Games four years ago, organizers enlisted prominent Italians to carry the Olympic flag into the stadium. Actress Susan Sarandon and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangrai Maatha were among the seven women who joined Loren in walking the flag around the stage and to its place astride the Italian flag, while thousands of waving flashlights created an illusion of a stadium filled with dancing flames.

Moments later, skiing star Giorgio Rocca recited the Olympic oath.

The ceremony sought to symbolize some traditional aspects of Italian culture, too.

Hoisting a giant neon set of Olympic rings on towers of scaffolding, for example, was meant to represent the arch that provides entrance to a piazza. All of the athletes passed under the rings at the start of their parade - although not before lithe acrobats in shining bodysuits danced atop them as they ascended.

Another highlight came near the end of the ceremony, when performers in white formed an image of a dove by climbing into place on a vertical black screen. Similarly, volunteers wearing multicolored hoods created a moving formation on the stage that looked from overhead like a ski jumper gliding down a slope and taking flight.

"We were committed to starting with energy and passion and I believe we did," Castellani said.

The skaters with flames shooting from the backs of their heads represented the sparks of passion, and the model Eva Herzigova emerging from a clam shell to create a real-life "Birth of Venus" was among the many touches that focused on Italy's artistic and cultural legacy. Legendary clothier Giorgio Armani designed many of the costumes, and former world champion gymnast Jury Chechi began the ceremony by pounding a golden anvil to produce the flames of passion.

National skiing hero Alberto Tomba carried the Olympic flame into the stadium to the roar of the crowd, but organizers defied popular expectation by having him hand it off to other famous Italian athletes, who passed it, in turn, to Belmondo for the lighting of the tallest caldron in Olympic history at 187 feet.

The opening and closing ceremonies together cost some $35 million to produce, and Castellani expected it to be worth the price.

"It's the kind of experience I will never forget," he said.

mcl@sltrib.com