Catholic Italy's Olympic host cities offer different access for Muslims to observe Ramadan

This year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games are located in Italy, a historically Catholic nation NewsCatholic Italy's Olympic host cities offer different access for Muslims to observe RamadanThis year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games are located in Italy, a historically Catholic nationY. Mara Teresa Hernndez & Jalal BwaitelSunday 22 February 2026 10:49 GMTBookmarkBookmark popoverRemoved from bookmarksClose popoverCatholic Italy's Olympic host cities offer different access for Muslims to observe RamadanShow all 5Your support helps us to tell the storyRead moreSupport NowFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. 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And they coincide with Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that’s a time for dawn-to-dusk fasting, religious reflection and communal celebration.One of the two host cities, Milan, is multicultural and cosmopolitan, and there are Islamic centers and mosques spread around the city to gather and worship. At least one is welcoming people of other faiths wishing to partake in iftar dinners, when Muslims break their daily fast. Up in the mountains, around the village of Cortina d'Ampezzo, prayer spaces are harder to come by. Still, Muslim residents in the area over recent years have been carving out their communities.Here's how some Muslims are observing Ramadan in Milan and Cortina: A mosque welcoming members of all faiths Milan’s Al-Wahid mosque is opening its doors during Ramadan, inviting guests to share the breaking of the fast and evening prayers. Near Milan’s Navigli district, it has been officially recognized as a place of worship by the city since 2000.Fridays — the weekly day of congregational prayer in Islam — draw larger crowds to mosques. On those days during Ramadan for the last few years, Al-Wahid welcomes guests from the municipality, local institutions, the Catholic Church and other religious communities. Interfaith iftars have become common in many parts of the world, including Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia and Pakistan, and in Australia and the United States, where Muslims are a relatively small minority.Al-Wahid's open gatherings aren't specifically for Olympic visitors, though they are scheduled weekly through March 14 — the day before the Paralympics end.“The Olympics are a symbolic moment,” Imam Yahya Pallavicini, vice president of a national Islamic religious association known by its acronym COREIS, told The Associated Press. “Sport, culture and art can help reduce prejudice and fear toward a particular culture or religious identity.”At sunset on Feb. 20, a few dozen Muslim worshippers stood shoulder to shoulder beneath a row of hanging lamps. They waited for the call to prayer before breaking their fast with dates offered on silver plates. Then they sat on the floor to share lentils, rice, meat and water before ending the evening with prayer. A 2025 report by a Milan-based migration research institute, ISMU, estimates that almost 400,000 Muslims live in Lombardy, the Italian region with the biggest immigrant population and which includes Milan, Italy's second-most populous city. The largest groups come from Morocco and Egypt, it said.Pallavicini said the community also includes people from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bosnia, among others. Mountain towns, not many mosques In the other Olympic host city, Cortina, at an elevation of about 1,220 meters (4,000 feet), eight Muslim people told the AP that finding a place to pray has proven challenging. The upscale mountain town, known as the Queen of the Dolomites, is home to a little over 5,000 people. About half its population is part of Italy’s Ladin minority, which settled the mountain hamlet of Anpezo a millennium ago. Rabah Boubegtiten, who traveled to work in the Olympics as a driver with Qatari security, said his drive to Brunico — the location of the nearest mosque he could find — took over an hour on a bad road. He found it using social media, having failed to locate one using Google, he added.“There are many nationalities here, many Muslims from various countries: Algerians, Tunisians, other Africans, and many Qataris, because we are working with them during the Winter Olympic Games. T