World Expo: Mayday in Milan

CRANES dot the skyline in north-west Milan, Italy’s second city. The area is not pretty, but for six months after May 1st it will be home to the World Expo—an event every five years that is a cross between a trade convention and a theme park, and traces its origins to London’s Great Exhibition of 1851.Expectations are high: 145 countries are participating and 8m tickets, over a third of the total, have been sold to tour operators. The theme, “Feeding the planet, energy for life”, is touted as a spur both for Italian culinary exports and for tackling world hunger.The government is ramping up efforts to promote Italy as a destination for tourists and investors alike, hoping that Expo can be a catalyst. It has launched an international recruitment drive for directors of its notoriously ill-run museums. At the Davos World Economic Forum, the economic-development ministry aired a much-praised video meant to alter common stereotypes about Italy.Only a few days later, however, the cultural ministry launched verybello.it, a less impressive website listing 1,300 things to do in Italy during Expo. Few liked the title, or the fact that it was available only in Italian, or that its map of Italy at first left out Sicily.The run-up to Expo has also been overshadowed by scandal. Last year seven people were arrested on corruption charges. That makes one stereotype about Italy, the…

The Economist: Europe