It’s odd what you end up chatting about while taking a taxi. Yesterday, for example, I got talking with the taxi driver about the forthcoming Expo in Milan.
After asking if I was English, and from London, the Expo event came up and the driver observed that he did not know if Milan would be able to accommodate all the visitors which the Expo event will draw. He had a point. Milan is a tiny city when compared to a metropolis like London, and Milan does tend to become pretty clogged up on the accommodation front when there is some major trade show on.
However the Expo is potentially much bigger than a mere trade show, and all the visitors will need to stay somewhere. Yes, the taxi driver’s point got me thinking. Time to track down some answers.
A quick hop over to the Milan Expo web site provided me with some detailed answers on the accommodation front. More specifically part of the Expo 2015 proposal document specifically addresses this issue in Chapter 12 – The accommodation plan for visitors and participants’ staff which gives plenty of detail on how Milan and its hinterland will absorb all the extra visitors who are expected to come to the Expo event.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
To briefly summarise the accommodation plan, what the Milanese authorities plan to do is the following:
- construct of a few more hotels,
- provide temporary facilities for accommodating exhibitors’ staff,
- construct a 2000 bed Olympic style village,
- build a ‘youth village’, and various other facilities.
In addition, the Milanese authorities plan to promote bed and breakfast type facilties, as well as relying on people staying in hotels within a 90 minute driving time radius of Milan.
It appears as though the accommodation aspects of the Milan Expo event have been well considered – otherwise I guess Milan would not have been given the opportunity to hold the event.
It was an interesting query that the taxi driver raised though. And I’m sure he’s not the only one to have considered this.
