Simone Bacchini writes:

When I read the news my interest was raised. As I learned of the details of the route I got excited. And when my colleague sent me the link to the official promotional clip, I confess, I was totally taken by it.

I’m no fool: I know that, like everything else surrounding official aspects of the modern Games, this Olympic Torch Relay too is part of a carefully crafted plan at the heart of which lie immense economic interests, and not only a “love of sports”. I know as well that the image of Britain it aims to offer is one studied to showcase the most appealing, uncontroversial views of this country. Sebastian Coe, quoted in the Independent newspaper, said that he “hoped the relay would provoke a similar reaction to this year’s royal wedding”, another highly-staged, somewhat “artificial” but feel-good event, one might argue. Well, I truly hope it will.

These are difficult, often depressing times. The continuing financial crisis has left many of us disheartened about the present and worried about the future. Last summer, social unrest brought scenes to our streets that we would have preferred not to have seen. In the coming weeks, months, possibly years, there will be plenty of opportunities to reflect on what went wrong. But we do also need a bit of respite and some cheering up.

The 8,000-mile Torch Relay will go through every county in the UK. It will visit 1,018 of our beautiful towns, cities, and villages. It will pass through spectacular scenery, like the summit of Mount Snowdon in Wales; the quasi-surreal Giants’ Causeway, in Northern Ireland; and the somewhat otherworldly landscape of the Shetlands, off the coast of Scotland.

And it’s not only the country’s natural environment that the light of the Olympic Torch will shine upon. Its path will remind us and the world of past and present British achievements in the arts - like Gormley’s majestic Angel of the North and the megaliths at Stonehenge. And of the ingenuity of British architects, exemplified by steel and iron bridges across the country, the Eden Project in Cornwall, and the Lovell Telescope, one of the biggest radio telescopes in the world. If well-attended, the Relay will also show Britain’s greatest asset: its people, united in joyful and celebratory mood.

Of course, once the big Olympic tent will have been picked up and folded away, ready to be sent to Rio, Britain will still have to deal with many of the same old problems - just like Greece, that other mythical place from which the Olympic Torch will begin its journey. But quite apart from any talk of “legacy” (only the future will tell), the Games is a mighty spectacle, perhaps the biggest show on earth. Isn’t the main purpose of any show, first and foremost, to entertain by offering an escape, albeit temporary, into other worlds? So, well done, Olympics; and what a great idea this Olympic Torch journey.