Milan just won the right to host the Expo 2015, beating out the Turkish city of Izmir in an announcement by the International Exhibitions Bureau that sparked jubilation in Italy. Its location in Europe as a major hub and city officials had said they were confident of drawing 30 million visitors to Expo 2015.There are some facts of this city nowadays that it made it the perfect candidate for a world fair: is situated at the centre of an area of about 10 million inhabitants, such as London or Paris; produce 10% of the Italian GDP, and have a per-capita revenue that is almost twice the Italian one and an unemployment level as low as half of Italy’s as a whole; sell 10 million tickets yearly for art, music and cinema shows; is the house 650 fashion show-rooms, in competition with Paris and New York.
As a all-milanese-girl - born and raised in Milan - I can't help but being happy about this city having won the bid and I will go see for sure the fruit of those 25 billions of euro investments from here to 2015.
I am a huge fan of my birth city. Can't deny it. Every time I go back there, as I get crazy for all the chaos and those outrageous prices, I sure recognize the charm and the convenience of a metropolitan city where you can get what you want at anytime of the day or of the night.
You'll never get bored in Milan, that's for sure. Well, I never did :-)
Let's celebrate with an aperitivo! :-)
Paolo M.