We have been interested in World Expos since we moved to Seattle and saw the Space Needle out of our apartment window each morning. When we learned that there was an Expo happening in Milan, we had to go and see it. But first, as required by Italian law, we had to visit a large church.
Milan is particularly famous as a fashion center, and it turns out that they built the world’s first indoor shopping mall!
Having seen everything that Milan had to offer, we headed to the Expo, a fairground 30 minutes outside the city where each nation built their own pavilion around the theme of food and sustainability. Each Expo (usually every few years) has a different theme and location.
Along with each nation’s pavilion, there are a variety of other installations that reflect the theme, such as this army of food warriors.
One of our first stops was in Brazil’s pavilion, which featured a giant net over a garden growing Brazilian plants. We think the net represented some sort of rainforest canopy metaphor, but mostly it was just fun to play on.
Vietnam built an impressive exterior, but the inside was just selling souvenirs; they may have missed the theme memo.
This pavilion was sponsored by the nation of Lindt Chocolates, which may be the greatest nation on Earth.
Jessie even learned a few secrets from the Lindt masters!
There was also a huge variety of Italian food and Italian products, including an entire store that only sold Nutella.
Azerbaijan put together an impressive pavilion, hoping to convince visitors to make the trek to the Azerbaijan 2017 Expo.
England did not feel the need to attract tourists, so this was their pavilion.
Spain looked at the theme of food, and decided to just show off their wines and meats.
There was a massive “supermarket of the future” at the Expo, and good news: the future looks just like the present, only with robot arms slowly taunting you with apples.
Slovenia had a bee theme, thankfully without the actual bees.
Austria imported a mini forest for their pavilion so that everyone could breathe authentic Austrian air.
Qatar built a giant empty basket, because nothing says sustainability like a huge city in the middle of the desert.
The signature installation of the Milan Expo was the “Tree of Life”, which bloomed every hour, on the hour, and then reverted to the Tree of Death for the next 59 minutes.
Phil’s favorite stop was Eataly, where each region of Italian food was represented, often in meat form.
Poland had a very friendly pavilion, with free cotton candy and generous use of hashtags.
Since Belgium had already built a french fry stand, the Netherlands showed off their festive approach to drinking, with a bar that was a functioning ferris wheel.
France had the classiest pavilion, with a beautiful French garden and a ceiling made of wine and cheese. They even had a tiny bakery to pump the authentic baguette smell throughout the area.
Ecuador had a beautiful exterior, but we didn’t make it to the 20 minute movie they were showing on the interior.
Most importantly, ‘Murica represented with an impressive pavilion, with vertical gardens, a food truck parking lot, videos of Barack and Michelle talking about the importance of food, and a rooftop bar playing American music where we stayed too long because we were homesick. Also, there was a great view since the USA built the tallest pavilion… suck it, Russia.
We ended the day with a Cirque du Soleil show that was made specifically for the Expo.
Since we had walked over 15 miles trying to see the entire Expo in one day, we spent most of the next day chilling on a boat on Lake Como.
Since most pavilions focused on foods other than tuna and mice, there were very few cats to be found at the Expo, but luckily we aren’t the only cat lovers in the world.
-Phil & Jessie
Katz 