Laura Bush is expected to pay a courtesy call on Premier Silvio Berlusconi when the wife of United States President George W. Bush stops in the Italian capital on her way to Turin for the opening of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games.
Well-informed sources said they expected the First Lady to be Berlusconi's luncheon guest at his Rome residence on Thursday before she heads north.
At present, Laura Bush's only confirmed appointments here include a private audience in the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI and a meeting with members of the Italian branch of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
The Dallas-based organisation is the leading private institution active in the fight against breast cancer in the United States.
Laura Bush is set to arrive in Rome with her daughter Barbara on Wednesday evening to lead the American delegation, which includes several former Olympic champions, to the opening of Torino 2006 on Friday, February 10. While in northern Italy, the First Lady and the American delegation will pay a visit to the US air base in Aviano, near the northeast city of Pordenone, to meet with military personnel stationed there.
So far at least 15 heads of state have promised to attend Friday's opening ceremony and Laura Bush will be joined by the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Cherie Blair, who is heading her country's delegation.
On Thursday evening, Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi will welcome dignitaries attending the inauguration at the former royal palace in Turin for a gala dinner which will see the Olympic Flame arrive carried by Prince Albert II of Monaco.
The next morning, Laura Bush will host a luncheon for select guests at the Villa Matilde resort hotel, where she is staying, before the inauguration ceremonies. No date has been given for Laura Bush's departure from Turin, but while she is there she will be able to attend the opening night of the opera La Boheme at Teatro Reggio as well as a concert by Andrea Bocelli.
The opening of the Winter Games will be staged at the Turin sports stadium where American Doug Jack, staging his seventh Olympic inauguration, has invented a choreography involving some 4,000 dancers who will interpret the symbol of a beating heart. At the same time, two Ferrari sports cars, one driven by seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher, will race
around the pitch to demonstrate Italian technology and style.
The traditional march of athletes and flag-bearers has been placed in the hands of Italian designer Giorgio Armani who has arranged for fake snow to fall on the public at the end. Some three billion people are expected to watch the over-three-hour event live on TV. The games themselves begin on Saturday, February 11 and end on the 26th.
