Expo 2015

Thursday, from our night near Pavia, we drove north to Expo 2015 on the outskirts of Milan.

The first thing of note we say was these really interesting power poles. Everywhere you look in the Milan area there is interesting architecture and design. 

We prepurchased tickets and parking online and arrived right at the opening at 10 am. It was rather quiet at first. This is a view from the top of the US pavilion. However, I soon figured out this is just a fraction of the site.

The USA pavilion was supposed to be one of the most popular. However, we found it rather boring. I did like these aerial gardens.

Here is another shot of the "hanging" gardens. It's possible more was going on later in the day.

Everywhere you looked there were interesting shaped and decorated pavilions. The one in back is Germany and the one to the left is Ecuador.

This is the center promenade. It was practically deserted when we first arrived. In spite of the day's heat it always seemed cool underneath these panels. I think they were pumping in cool air but Dom thinks they were shaped to increase the breeze.

This might be the Peruvian pavilion. Dom says they used the box it came in. Those external supports are all wood!

This is Israel's pavilion with plants growing on the exterior walls. There was a lot of this. The theme of the Expo is food and feeding the planet. However, there were no free tastings.

This is the Holy See (Vatican) pavilion. It had a very moving multimedia show inside about Catholic relief services all over the world.

Banca Intesa San Paolo had a great pavilion showcasing all sorts of public works projects, theater, arts, and other projects they support throughout Italy. There were a number of "creatures" depicted in spotlights from the ceiling. To make the videos play you put your hand into the beam and raised it. When you did it it looked like you were holding the creature.

We did not go into very many pavilions but we did wait in line for the Kazakhstan one. It proved to be the best we saw. Extremely well done and everything worked. This sand painting video at the beginning told the history of Kazakhstan.

Upstairs in the pavilion they highlighted their wheat and apple production. They are among the largest producers of each in the world. It was like being transported suddenly to Eastern Washington! They also had a great moving 3-D exploration of the country. It's beautiful! They are hosting the next Expo in 2017.

There are all sorts of interesting sculptures around the site.

And interesting buildings!

And the Tree of Life where there is some sort of show (but we didn't hang around for it).

We ate at the Algerian pavilion where they had a great buffet plus cous cous. We had one of each and shared. Just the leftover shown here.

Not a great picture but this was the Algerian restaurant.

Then we went by the New Holland farm equipment exhibit. 

They had a grape harvester, grain harvester, and giant tractor on display.

You could of course climb into the cab. It seems to be a popular activity with boys and men. Dom waited his turn to explore the cab of the giant tractor.

Then we went to the France exhibit where you zigzagged through gardens of all types of grain, fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

It was a very good looking pavilion. Inside they had all sorts of food available. I bought six yummy macarons!

By the time we finished France we were getting pretty tuckered out and it was about 3 pm. We decided to finish walking the length of the site and then take the shuttle back to our car. Along the way we saw more interesting pavilions.

I think this is South Korea.

This is Vietnam.

This pavilion was entered by walking on cargo nets strung between the two sides of the building. I would have loved to see what that felt like but the line was quite long.

Angola's pavilion.

Finally we reached the end and a classic car...

...a Ferrari Formula 1 car, o course.

That was it for the day. We took our exhausted selves back to the car and then drove to Monza. All we did there was find a hotel and spend the night.

We really enjoyed our visit to Expo 2015 and think it's well worth a day, maybe even two if you really want to see a lot of the pavilions. It is very well done. There were plenty of restrooms, cash machines, and other services. Our favorite stop for food was the Lavazza bar--great coffee and pastry. There is LOTS of food but none of it is free. Buy tickets and parking online beforehand. Wear comfy shoes and have fun!