FOREIGN INVASION INFLUX OF ATHLETES, MEDIA AND FANS WILL EXPOSE TURIN TO REST OF WORLD.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

TURIN, Itally - Looked for it everywhere, and couldn't find a one.

Somewhere you'd think there'd be lousy sign proclaiming:

Hannibal Slept Here!

A guy actually brings elephants through the mountains on the way to pushing around the Romans, and you'd expect a small statue or a little plaque or something. Guess pillaging a city can leave bad memories.

But Turin is all about the warm and fuzzy stuff right now, building imagine-making memories as it unleashes itself upon the world for the 2006 Winter Olympics.

The Opening Ceremony is Friday, but the international media began arriving in earnest Tuesday, all eager to make instant observations.

Here's a quick one: It's cold and gray here.

Yeah, spend the better part of 24 hours driving, flying, shuttling, taxing, busing, waiting and walking in 35-degree weather, and you tend to be a tad grumpy.

Early conclusions on new Olympic sites is not always wise, since there are typically flaws in the system that organizers scurry over frozen little ice ponds to correct.

For the most part, Italy had things going fairly smoothly Tuesday for the arriving herd. After a much-delayed connecting flight from France seated next to a former North Carolina tight end, who really couldn't help it if his Alps-sized back forced me to sit with my right shoulder lodged in my mouth the entire flight, things went without a hitch at the airport.

You heard a lot of ciao, but there was no official Sophia Loren greeting. Such a missed opportunity. Overall, security seemed fairly light.

The drive from the airport to the Games' center - the Lingotto Fiere Exhibition Center - wasn't exactly encouraging.

This is mostly a tired industrial town, and it is littered with graffiti and shanties and unremarkable construction. It seems almost un-Italian.

The Lingotto itself is the former main car factory for Fiat. It's an imposing five-stories high and longer than five football fields, and is now used for commercial, business and entertainment activities.

The infamous ``mag and bag'' inspection area that all media members must enter through is, for some reason, about three football fields away from the main press center, meaning if it snows some scribes will be left frozen like little statues.

Outside is the ``Leaning Arch of Torino,'' a giant, St. Louis-sized red arch held up by wires as it inclines toward the Lingotto. This being Italy, it must be art.

The U.S. started a round of pre-Games press conferences, and showing just how daring this year's team is, they brought Bode Miller down the hill. In real news, Miller did not offend Islam, Italians or accuse George W. Bush of using steroids.

Miller and the rest of the ski and snowboarding team are up in the Italian Alps, which is no easy commute. Turin officials estimate it will take almost two hours to bus from the city to the mountain hub, and from there the bus to specific mountain venues could take another hour.

And somewhat oddly, many of the mountain communities have French names. Yeah, Napoleon and friends once made like Hannibal.

Turin is not looking anything like Salt Lake City, where a bright sun was out almost every day and many commutes to mountain venues could take as little as 30 minutes. Also don't remember any graffiti, Italian or otherwise, in Utah.

One other thing Salt Lake City did was raise expectations for the U.S. team. This is no longer about an occasional Eric Heiden, but a team that expects to win; the U.S. won a record 34 medals in Utah, just two behind leader Germany.

It also introduced the U.S. sports world to a series of new characters, and this time out, figures to be just as successful (it returns 22 medal winners) and have just as many fringe characters.

Miller, of course, returns as the cover boy of the U.S. team, along with short-track, goateed speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno and still-here figure skater Michelle Kwan.

There will always be those who jump into the spotlight, and snowboarding, with the model good-looks of blondes Gretchen Bleiler and Lindsey Jacobellis or the wild red hair of Shaun ``The Flying Tomato'' White, could elevate new stars.

Sasha Cohen is poised to challenge Russia's Irina Slutkaya as the new darling of women's figure skating, and its automatic dubbing as Queen of the Games. Fashion-crazed Johnny Weir is a threat in the men's competition.

There could be another Winter Olympics controversy. Someone could watch curling. The sun could come out.

And Turin could put it all together and have the biggest thing to get excited about since Augustus set up a military base here to protect the north.

Whatever it takes to make Hannibal a memory.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) The Olympic rings on the roof of the athletes' village in Sestriere, Italy, are a signal to everyone that the 2006 Winter Games are about to begin.

Kevin Frayer/Associated Press

(2 -- color) Klaus Steinbach, center, president of the National German Olympic Committee, poses with Turin Olympic mascots Neve, left, a snowball, and Gliz, an ice cube.

Vladimir Rys/Bongarts/Getty Images

(3) The rush is on to get venues like the Oval Lingotto Ice Ring ready for the Turin Olympics.

Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images