TURIN, Italy – While military helicopters patrolled the closed airspace above the Olympic Stadium last night, Rudolph Giuliani and his American delegation to the closing ceremonies looked on as Turin bade farewell to the 20th Winter Olympic Games. Dancing tarot cards and troupes of clownish characters from Italy’s Lenten carnival tradition feted the end of an event that, despite the glum predictions, will go down as a great success – both for the Italian hosts and their American guests.

“You met the challenge,” International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge exclaimed at the closing ceremonies. “These were truly magnificent games.”

Rogge said at a press conference earlier in the day that he was “very satisfied” with Turin’s organization and that the infrastructure was “probably the best ever.”

It wasn’t so much the infrastructure people were concerned about before the opening ceremonies. The greatest worries, voiced by the American sponsors in particular, were related to economics and security – namely sagging ticket sales, the specter of terrorist attacks, and opening-day demonstrations by environmentalists who opposed a planned highspeed train between Turin and Lyon.

Indeed, as Turin Olympic Committee president Valentino Castellani was addressing the crowd, a Spanish man raced up to where he was speaking, ripped a microphone off the podium, and said a few incoherent words before being whisked away by security guards.

In the end, though, the environmentalists’ protests fizzled out or were blocked by police before they could interfere. Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said last week that he received no specific, significant terrorist threats throughout the Games, and congratulated the effort of police and armed forces, which put more than 15,000 troops on the ground and in the air.

Even the ticket sales turned out to be a matter of pride for Turin. Despite spotty attendance at some of the premier events, Olympic officials said yesterday that they had sold 900,000 of the one million available tickets, beating the organizing committee’s target revenue of 64.4 million euros by a margin of 5 million.

The greatest surprise was likely the attendance at curling competitions. The sport’s following has seen a seemingly inexplicable explosion while in Italy; according to members of the bronze-winning U.S. men’s team, e-mails are flooding in from Americans eager to find the nearest club. The exclamation point came during the men’s bronze-medal match between America and Britain, when a streaker wearing only a rubber chicken had to be tackled by referees midway through the match.

In all, fans in Turin bought some 42,000 tickets for curling.

Despite dismal performances by pre-Olympic poster boy Bode Miller and the U.S. hockey team, not to mention the withdrawal of Michelle Kwan prior to the figure skating competition, the Americans fared extremely well in Turin. The 25 total medals coming home (nine gold, nine silver, and seven bronze) are an American record for a Winter Games on foreign soil, and nine short of the 34 won in Salt Lake City in 2002.

In all, 26 countries – including first time winners Slovakia and Latvia – earned at least one medal, up from a high of 24 in 1998 and 2002.And 11 countries won at least 10 medals, bettering the previous mark of 10 at Nagano in 1998.

Canada was also among the major success stories, bettering its record 2002 haul of 17 medals with 24 in Turin, including a games-high five by speedskater Cindy Klassen. The team’s performance lent some credibility to Canada’s “Own the Podium” plan to finish no. 1 when it hosts the next Games in Vancouver in 2010.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials were pleased with their team’s performance and expressed regret about pre-Olympic projections that the Americans would match or exceed the record haul of 2002.

“This has been an incredible performance,” U.S. Olympic Committee chief Jim Scherr said. “It’s probably our fault that it’s been viewed a little less than that.”

But in a symbolic indication of the power of the pre-Olympic marketing campaign on this side of the Atlantic, even Rogge expressed surprise yesterday at Miller’s disappointing results on the slopes.

“I expected, of course, like everyone, more,” he said. “That does not diminish whatsoever the fact that he is a great champion, possibly the best skier of his time. I would only hope that he would continue to Vancouver and show in Vancouver what he’s really capable of.”

Filling the void left by Miller were two previously obscure American skiers, Ted Ligety and Julia Mancuso, both of whom won unexpected gold medals – Ligety in the men’s combined and Mancuso in the women’s giant slalom. The Italian-American Mancuso, thanks in part to her candid remarks about her family’s history with Al Capone, earned a great affection among Italian fans, who chanted her name as she took the starting gate in her triumphant performance on Saturday.

At the closing ceremonies yesterday, Mancuso joined two other Italian-Americans who receive regular praise in this country: race car champion Mario Andretti, who came as part of the U.S. delegation, and Giuliani. While signing autographs and posing for photos with his wife, Judith, the former mayor gushed about the success of the Turin Games.

“Before, Americans knew only Milan, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Venice, especially,” Giuliani said. “Now they can add Turin to that list.”