>Can anyone explain the medal design to me?
The medal design resembles a piazza (square) of an italian town where most part of social life takes place or used to take place.
Considering that they spent some time thinking of a new design it's nice and not so boring compared to the usual medal design..
You can find additional information at
http://www.olympic.org/uk/news/olympic_news/full_story_uk.asp?id=1575Bruno