Turin

The word Palestra on the side of a dilapidated building was good for a smile. The street called Via Filadelfia was a warming sight on a cold night. But it was the little handmade sign on the window of Mangia e Bevi Snackbar that brought on a full attack of homesickness: "Philly Cheese Steaks. " Now I know what you're thinking. You can't get a decent cheesesteak outside a 20-mile radius of Ninth and Passyunk. I've seen everything from hot roast beef sandwiches to hunks of sirloin on kaiser rolls passed off as Philadelphia cheesesteaks, and that's during travels in the States.

Tests show that the images on the mysterious Shroud of Turin came not from Jesus Christ's body and spirit but from an artist's paintbrush, a researcher says. "I believe the shroud was painted twice, once with iron earth (tones) and then with vermilion where the artist wanted a more intense color," said Walter C. McCrone, head of McCrone Research Institute in Chicago. McCrone, speaking Sunday during a two-day conference on the shroud at Elizabethtown College, said he based his conclusion on an extensive analysis of fibers he collected by pressing tape on the cloth in 1978 and the color of parts of the image.

It's just a piece of linen. You'd think by now that the people who figured out how stars are formed and how DNA works could offer a flat answer: yes or no. Is the cloth known as the Shroud of Turin an image, as believers claim, of the crucified Jesus - a kind of snapshot of the Resurrection event that Christians will celebrate tomorrow? If not, just what is this intriguing image of a bearded man that is visible on the much-venerated cloth? In decades of debate and research, many scientists have shaken their heads at the credulity of believers and reserved special scorn (junk science!

Ten years after rigorous scientific examination of the mysterious Shroud of Turin raised more questions than it answered, the linen that many believe may have wrapped the crucified body of Christ will undergo another round of testing to determine its age. The tests will not determine whether the shroud, which is kept locked in a silver coffin in the cathedral of Turin, Italy, really was wound around Jesus when he was laid in a tomb nearly 2,000...

FOUR YEARS ago, Peter Laviolette had plenty to think about on the 9-hour flight back to the United States from Turin, Italy. When his plane's wheels touched down on the runway, Laviolette was left with just one thought: "I came back and I thought: 'Mission not accomplished,' " Laviolette said. As the head coach of the United States' men's hockey team at the 2006 Winter Olympics, it was hard for him to feel otherwise. An eighth-place showing equaled the United States' worst ever in ice hockey - with or without NHL players.

The word Palestra on the side of a dilapidated building was good for a smile. The street called Via Filadelfia was a warming sight on a cold night. But it was the little handmade sign on the window of Mangia e Bevi Snackbar that brought on a full attack of homesickness: "Philly Cheese Steaks. " Now I know what you're thinking. You can't get a decent cheesesteak outside a 20-mile radius of Ninth and Passyunk. I've seen everything from hot roast beef sandwiches to hunks of sirloin on kaiser rolls passed off as Philadelphia cheesesteaks, and that's during travels in the States.

The bus into Turin was late Tuesday morning. Suddenly, two compact station wagons with Olympic rings on their doors pulled up alongside six waiting journalists. "We sorry, but the bus it no come," said a friendly volunteer. "You must go to Torino in the automobiles. " That was fine. Three of us, plus a driver, in each small car. The 50-plus-mile trip should be pleasant enough, a little more intimate than rattling around in one of the large and generally sparsely populated buses.

To tourists, the scent of this polluted city might more closely resemble exhaust fumes. But when Guido Martinetti sticks his regal Italian nose into the Turin smog and sniffs, he senses the fragrance of culinary history. "You can smell a city that has had a king," Martinetti said, sipping an afternoon espresso in a Piazza Paleocara cafe this week. The 31-year-old founder of the nation's hottest new gelateria, Grom, Martinetti was referring to the House of Savoy, whose kings for centuries ruled this area where Italy, Switzerland and France converge.

It took a British agnostic to spur my intellectual curiosity about La Santa Sindone di Torino, the Holy Shroud of Turin. When the Sunday Times of London first leaked results of carbon-dating tests indicating the shroud could not be the burial cloth of Christ, Britain's determinedly offensive tabloid press was jubilant in proclaiming that the "solution" of the six-century mystery proved more than 20 generations of Christian believers had been...

With jumps, spins and those majestic spirals, Michelle Kwan showed she is good - and healthy - enough yesterday and earned one more run at that elusive Olympic gold medal. Kwan sealed the spot on the U.S. Olympic team that she was handed 2 weeks ago, proving to a five-person monitoring committee that she's recovered from the groin injury that kept her out of the national championships. She performed both her long and short programs in less than 12 minutes, a quick practice session, and did every jump except the triple loop.

Pronounced: IHL-yah breez-GAH-lahf Pos.: Goalie Hgt.: 6-3 Wgt.: 210 Age: 30 Born: June 22, 1980 (Togliatti, USSR) Transactions: Drafted: 2000, 2nd round (No. 44), by Anaheim. Nov. 16, 2007: Placed on waivers by Ducks. Nov. 17, 2007: Claimed by Phoenix. June 7, 2011: Traded to Flyers for LW Matt Clackson, a third-round draft choice in 2012 and a conditional draft choice. Career stats: 156-116-35, 2.53 goals-against average, .916 save percentage Stanley Cup: 2007 with Anaheim Awards: 2009 Vezina Trophy runner-up International: 2002 (Salt Lake City)

Michelangelo Pistoletto is adept at making old news new news. It's really very simple. The white-bearded 77-year-old Italian artist gathers up discarded newspapers, fashions them into large spheres, and then parades them out into the world for encounters with the unsuspecting. He's done it in London. He's done it in Turin. And on Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m. at the west entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, he will do it in Philadelphia, an American reenactment of the first great rolling-news-ball event in the streets of Turin in 1967.

Lee Westwood tries to peak for the biggest tournaments. And while he doesn't put The Players Championship in his top five, it's big enough that he is playing some of his best golf going into the weekend. Westwood ran off three straight birdies to start his back nine yesterday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., on his way to a 7-under-par 65 and a one-shot lead over Heath Slocum, Francesco Molinari and Ryuji Imada. Westwood was at 12-under 132, the lowest score to lead after 36®holes at The Players Championship since 1994, when Greg Norman was at 14-under on his way to setting the 72-hole record.

Caitlin Cahow was furious with herself. The Team USA defender had gone down to block a shot and wasn't able to get back into position in time to prevent Pernilla Winberg from scoring Sweden's only goal in yesterday's hockey semifinal matchup. The fact that Cahow had a cut above her knee that required stitches - "more than two," she said - wasn't an excuse. That's how determined the Americans were to avenge their 2006 semifinal loss to the Swedes in Turin. "It was definitely in the backs of our minds," defender Kerry Weiland said.

FOUR YEARS ago, Peter Laviolette had plenty to think about on the 9-hour flight back to the United States from Turin, Italy. When his plane's wheels touched down on the runway, Laviolette was left with just one thought: "I came back and I thought: 'Mission not accomplished,' " Laviolette said. As the head coach of the United States' men's hockey team at the 2006 Winter Olympics, it was hard for him to feel otherwise. An eighth-place showing equaled the United States' worst ever in ice hockey - with or without NHL players.

Less than 24 hours after she won America's first gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics, freestyle skier Hannah Kearney was comfortably atop the platform Saturday night's success had built her. During a news conference yesterday, the Vermont native not only lobbied to get more funding for U.S. freestylers but also to get her name on a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor. "Coffee with Oreo cookies," Kearney, 23, told reporters. "I'll do all the testing. " There's a precedent.

VANCOUVER - Call us underdogs. "The attention is going to be on Canada and Russia and to a lesser extent, Sweden," Brian Burke, the general manager of the U.S. men's hockey team, said yesterday. "Nobody's talking about our ability to win up here but us. And that's fine with us. " Call us the bad guys. "We know we're the villain up here," USA coach Ron Wilson said yesterday during the team's first news conference here. "It's their national sport. The crowds are going to be very intense.

A day after a Flyers team doctor confirmed Simon Gagne's mild right groin strain, the winger was back in the weight room at the team's practice facility. Gagne was injured during the first practice at Team Canada's orientation camp on Monday night in Calgary. He is scheduled to have an injection today, and the Flyers said they expect him to be ready for the start of training camp next month. Gagne has been plagued by injuries, but said players get accustomed to the pain.

The word Palestra on the side of a dilapidated building was good for a smile. The street called Via Filadelfia was a warming sight on a cold night. But it was the little handmade sign on the window of Mangia e Bevi Snackbar that brought on a full attack of homesickness: "Philly Cheese Steaks. " Now I know what you're thinking. You can't get a decent cheesesteak outside a 20-mile radius of Ninth and Passyunk. I've seen everything from hot roast beef sandwiches to hunks of sirloin on kaiser rolls passed off as Philadelphia cheesesteaks, and that's during travels in the States.

The strip of a pillowcase stained with the blood of Abraham Lincoln is usually locked away in a display case or safe at the Grand Army of the Republic Museum and Library in the city's Frankford section. But last night it was brought out as Exhibit A during a debate among members of the museum's board over whether to allow DNA testing of the relic to solve a medical mystery. Was the 16th president dying of cancer, with less than a year to live, when he was shot by assassin John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre?