Put on some comfortable shoes and know that the site of EXPO 2015 in Milan is gigantic. Those were the only clear guidelines I had in mind when my parents and I departed Zurich for Milan.
Getting to Milan was smooth as usual and we found our hotel quickly. That allowed us to begin our EXPO 2015 Milano adventure the very afternoon of our arrival.
Dad and I studied the metro map and thanks to Railtour we already had day passes for the entire public transit network. Heartfelt thanks for those; they really made it a lot easier for us! Because the little ticket office in the metro station in front of the hotel apparently had not been operating for a while…
From the city to the EXPO grounds
The ride from the hotel to the EXPO drags out. It took nearly an hour. The state of cleanliness of Milan’s Metro is remarkable, so much so that more than one metropolis would do well to take a page from its book. We let ourselves be rocked and rattled along and sprayed by loudly arguing fellow riders, until we finally reached the terminus of the red Metro line M1 Rho Fiera at the southwest entrance of the EXPO. Too late did I read this article. You can also get to the EXPO grounds with trams 12 and 19. If I’d known that ahead of time, I’m sure we would have tried it, because there is so much more to see from the tram than travelling on the metro underground.
The entrance and security checks are intense. They scan your bags, photo gear, and drinking bottles. Once you’re through, you cross railroad tracks on a large overpass and then at the end of another ramp that seems to go on forever you are greeted by the scent from a wonderful hanging iris garden. It took us two day to solve the riddle of the scent. An Italian soldier that had the guard duty on the ramp solved the puzzle for us: here, iris grows vertically.
So, finally, there we were, standing on the great main road called Decumano and practically knocked over by it. We had no plan, simply wanting first to get an overview and then just drift. Funny, but the first thing that looked halfway familiar to me was a small mobile stand of GROM, probably Italy’s best-known and -tasting gelateria. Primed by a portion of heavenly gelato we were ready to immerse ourselves in the EXPO adventure.
The exposition grounds main axis is about 1.4 km long and is lined right and left by one country pavilion and theme cluster after the other. Roughly halfway is the “Cardo” cross street with the Piazza Italia. Here Italy comes to life. Go north toward “Albero della Vita” and all of Italy’s regions are represented. In the afternoons they put on folklore and musical performances. And at the “Albero della Vita,” Italy celebrates itself totally with shows galore.
The whole thing at times brings Disneyland to mind. Here, too, the emphasis is on offering spectacles. On the Decumano, so to speak EXPO’s boulevard, attractions and parades are staged continuously; there is always also some kind of circus going on in front of the individual country pavilions.
The first day, we simply went with the flow of the place and didn’t get very far. The amount of impressions is immense. There is an unbelievably amount of things to see; it’s difficult to know where to start. We did not plan anything and to begin with we just tuned in to the impressive exteriors, the spectacular architecture, and the lively goings on.
Fantastic exteriors
World exposition or amusement park?
I wasn’t sure that first evening. Should I regard the EXPO Milano 2015 as a world exposition or as an amusement park? Is it meant for visitors from around the world or is only staged for Italy? Somethings to seemed mostly show and little substance. For example, here and there we ran into language barriers, and especially with the big theme clusters, for instance on the subject of coffee, the shell is more impressive than the content. The architecture of the coffee theme area is definitely fantastic. The individual country boxes for the most part then unfortunately suffer by contrast.
A second report on EXPO 2015 Milano highlighting my favorite gems is here.
The only unfinished pavilion when we were there was the Nepalese one.
Infos, directions and web links
The info brochure that we received from Railtour with the travel documents, the official, EXPO 2015 Facebook page , as well as the official website of EXPO 2015 are helpful sources for getting up to speed before getting there. I did load the app on my smartphone but wound up not using it.
In various spots, you can access the overview map on touch screens, along with the daily events schedule, as well as information on the country pavilions and theme clusters. But then it happens often that you are too late for a desired performance. If you want to be on the grounds at a specific time you are better off getting organized beforehand, because the grounds really are vast.
I was impressed by the information tablet in Braille, something never before encountered in this format.
You can see all my photos in this Flickr album.
EXPO 2015 Milano runs until the end of October 2015. All-inclusive deals incl. travel, hotel, EXPO tickets, and day passes for public transit are available from Railtour. This wraparound feel-good package is highly recommended. Should you want to focus on the EXPO exclusively, a hotel near the fairgrounds recommends itself.
We want to thank Sandra Wohlhauser and Manuela Tulli of Railtour for the generous invitation, the expert and forthcoming advice, perfect organization and the terrific documentation, EXPO and transportation tickets. The little EXPO brochure was worth its weight in gold.
Many thanks indeed!
