Italians love Starbucks and The Milan Expo (or How to Cram 250,000 People in a Tiny Area...)

250,000 people who have no idea what a line is.  People who don't understand that second hand smoke is a really horrible thing and you probably shouldn't be holding your cigarette at the same height as most children's faces or blowing that smoke behind you into those said children's same faces.

Ryan and Emily on the train

I would love to say that the Expo was awesome.  I was totally prepared to be awed and inspired.  I didn't mind forking over 80€ to see this amazing ode to all things green, environmentally conscious, and of course all the food.

Sadly, we didn't get there until after noon.  Part of that was having to ride the train and the subway to get there rather than having the car, and part of it is having two kids and being happy to be out of the house, dressed, before 9:30.  By the time we got there, we were starving, the kids were hungry (aka cranky and whiny) and we knew we had to get food first.  The geniuses of the Expo put 3 whole tiny food stalls right at the entrance.  So after standing in line for 30 minutes while Aaron entertained the children, we finally got a couple Piadinas (tortillas with meat inside), some french fries and some (admittedly delicious) fried onion strips for 30€ (read mediocre food for way too  much money.  Yay for captive audiences).

Ireland Pavilion

Finally, after everyone was fed, we began our journey into the Expo.  At first it didn't seem so crowded.  We walked through the Ireland pavilion relatively quickly.  We had been told to bring our strollers with the children in them in order to get ushered past the long queues and into the express lines.  Unfortunately, many others had been alerted to that trick as well and as we progressed down the boulevard, the "express" lines were sometimes as long as the regular lines and I couldn't find the end of them to even stand in.  According to a friend when the line for the Japanese pavilion was upwards of 8 hours, they finally closed it.  For a country where standing in line is something they don't seem to understand, having an 8 hour queue is mind boggling.

Belgium Pavilion

The expo was organized as one long "road" with the pavilions on either side.  Some smaller countries were grouped together for the coffee display, the fruits and legumes display, the chocolate display and other products.  I managed to take pictures of some of the interesting country pavilions.  Italy had the largest pavilion, but I don't think we even made it there before I turned to Aaron and said we should just leave.  I don't mind crowds when they are well organized and have a flow to them.  This crowd was insane.  People were walking up and down the main avenue on the left and the right.  They were crossing it to get to the pavilions for food and treats or bathrooms.  They were pushing aside our strollers.  At one point, I turned to take a picture of a pavilion, looked back ahead of me and Aaron had been swallowed by the crowd.

Vietnam Pavilion

Map of the Expo 

I wish I could tell you more about the Expo.  But all we saw was the entrance, some cool fountains, the Ireland pavilion and people.  So many people.  I am less dissapointed by the waste of a ticket than I am that I got to see nothing of this once in a lifetime (for an American) chance.  The Expo people should have conferred with Disney or some other company that knows how to manage huge crowds in tiny spaces.

Milan's Open Subway Trains

We did however get to ride the Milan subway and they have these amazing open trains.  You could see all the way down from one end to the other.  It made things much easier to traverse.

The line at Arnold's Coffee was out the door.
If you enlarge the picture, you can see all the
same Starbucks drinks you adore on the menu
at Arnold's.  

We also went to Arnold's Coffee Shop which is an American style coffee shop, basically Starbucks in Italy.  Italy doesn't have Starbucks yet, but it has been all abuzz for the past week as the owner of one of the soccer teams here has promised Italians that he will be bringing Starbucks here.  I cannot tell you how excited people are.  I had a chance to talk to an Italian who has done a fair bit of travelling and he said the novelty of Starbucks has people excited.  We decided that it is less about considering Starbucks coffee (we also decided that people won't give up their normal Italian coffee) and more about the drinks Starbucks creates that happen to have coffee in them.  If Arnold's is any indication, Starbucks is missing out on a HUGE opportunity here.

All in all, it was another opportunity to see Milan.  It's nice to get out of Bergamo and see new things.  Also, here's a cute picture of Emily sleeping.