Next year, from May 1st  to October 31st, the World’s Fair is coming to Milan!

Milan last hosted nearly 110 years ago, and will be putting on quite the spectacle in recognition of receiving the honor of hosting next year’s event. Colloquially known as world’s fairs, past universal expositions have left the world with such landmarks as the Eiffel Tower and Chicago’s world-renowned Field Museum.



Next year’s Expo will cover a total area of nearly 11 million square feet, in the form of an island surrounded by a canal, offering visitors a chance to experience waterside cafes and passeggiatas (strolls) so central to Italian life.

Expanding on the idea of the Mediterranean diet and the fact that people in Italy’s island region of Sardinia are among the longest-lived in the world, the Expo will focus on spreading good eating habits and sustainable development practices.

Taking “feeding the planet, energy for life” as its theme, the Expo will manifest this concept through five interesting areas: food for the body (edibles), food for the eyes (architecture), food for the soul (addressing global food issues), food for the mind (education), and food for the heart (entertainment).



Like past world’s fairs, the event will feature pavilions from over the world, and as of last month, nearly 150 countries had signed up to participate. Award-winning design team Herzog & de Meuron have created a city-like grid for the pavilions, which will function like row houses in a residential city neighborhood, each rising—in many cases with “living” walls—over the expo grounds and often featuring roof decks, as will be the case with the U.S. pavilion, focusing on American food production, with a special section devoted to food trucks.

On Italy tours, trains are one of the best ways to see the country. You can enjoy the landscape in comfortable surrounds, be transported directly from city center to city center, and not have to work about GPS or parking laws.

When you go to book Italian trains, whether online via Trenitalia or at one of the kiosks in Italian train stations (we’ll be covering how exactly to get your tickets that in our newsletter this month, sign up here), it’s easily to be either confused or overwhelmed.

Italy has so many different types of trains, and often all of them travel the same route. Let’s break it down.

The National Train System

The Italian national rail runs almost all local and regional trains. A few regions have their own systems that are also open to the public, but most trains you’ll end up taking go the Trenitalia, the national system.

Local trains make lots of stops, only have second-class seats, and connect cities that are close by within the same region, like Florence and Siena in Tuscany or Venice and Verona in the Veneto.

There are several levels of trains that go faster than local trains but slower than high speed. And every few years it seems like something new pops up!

Regional trains can also connect you to cities in the same region, but they make fewer stops than local trains and move faster. You can also take regional trains or fast regional trains to move from one region to another where the high-speed trains don’t run or when you don’t want to pay the extra expense of those trains.

Intercity trains were, once upon a time, the fast option, but now they are more or less phased out. You’ll still see them as a slower option on some long distance routes. Likewise, Eurostar was the high-speed option ten years ago, but now they offer another way (at twice the time and often also twice the price) to get between distant cities when the high-speed trains are full.

High-speed Trains: Italo vs. Freccia

For high-speed service, which is what you need to go between major cities such as Milan and Rome or Florence and Venice, you now have two options, thanks to the relative newcomer Italo.

A private company with its own lounges and—in some cases like Rome where it leaves from a secondary station—its own stations, Italo offers a luxury product. Freccia (Italian for arrow) trains from Trenitalia have several levels of premium cabins that offer similar service, but the basic product is quite functional, if not a little cramped, and can be found for great prices if you book in advance.

The Freccia trains cut the time it takes to get around Italy in half, getting you around faster than driving, and even flying in most cases.

When you think of different types of dining establishments, most fall into one of two categories-sit down or take out, fine dining or casual, restaurants in cafes.

But in Italy, they seem to have a dizzying number of names for places that, ostensibly, all seem like sit down restaurants: trattoria, ristorante, osteria, enoteca, and the list goes on.

When you're out in Italy, how do you know what you're getting? There are basically five grades of sit-down restaurant, two types of wine bars, and two main types of take-out place.

Sit-Down Restaurants:

• Ristorante - This is the top grade of Italian dining establishments, with conscientious service, fine dining plating and dishes, and often a well-known chef.


• Trattoria - Trattorias are wonderful casual places to eat, whether for a pre-set lunch menu or a dinner out. They focus on typical Italian fare, without the fusion flare you may see in ristorantes.


• Osteria - Osterias are much like trattorias, but a bit more casual with a focus on regional specialties.


• Tavola Calda - In a tavola calda, there is typically no table service. You choose your food from a cafeteria style serving set up. These are primarily in Florence.


• Pizzeria - In Italy, pizzarias are sit-down restaurants that predominantly serve pizza with wine, a variety of salads, and a few pasta selections.

Wine bars:

• Enoteca - For a more formal wine tasting experience in line with American wine bars, head to an enoteca. Today, many are high-design and high-tech, though the food options are typically limited.


• Taverna - Tavernas are more old-fashioned, like an Italian version of a British pub, with wine instead of beer. Food is very traditional, simple fare.

Take-out:

• Pizza a taglio - For a slice of pizza on the run, look for a pizza a taglio (literally: by the slice). There may be limited seating, but squares of pizza, calzones, and occasionally some desserts are packaged up to take away.


• Rosticceria - Unlike pizza a taglio places, which expect people to be eating their food on the go, rosticcerias typically serve hot food, primarily meat and roast vegetable dishes, to take and eat at home. If you're looking for an entire chicken, this is the place.

Even though in many parts of the U.S., it still doesn’t quite feel like it, the first “official” day of spring is actually March 20!

While spring is worth celebrating for the weather, once of the best things that comes with that is spring produce. Many fresh greens in spring, from salad to peas, are available throughout the spring and summer in one form or another, but the real, rare gem of the season is asparagus.

In Italy, both in the countryside and even on roadsides in the suburbs, people forage for wild asparagus, a more delicate form of the thick stalks we’re used to. Long and spindly, wild asparagus a tender delicacy, but you can approximate this Italian favorite at home by getting the freshest, thinnest asparagus you can find at your farmers market and eating it right away before it becomes tough.

Bring spring into your home this month with one of these five Italian traditional asparagus recipes:

Asparagus Risotto

Blanch or steam asparagus in a large pot of water. Add broth cubes. Saute chopped onion in olive oil, add Arborio rice and sauté for one minute before ladling in broth to cover. As broth evaporates, continue to add more until the rice are fluffly and transparent. Chop the asparagus into 1-inch-long sections and stir into risotto along with grated Parmesan.

Asparagus Frittata

Dice one shallot. Saute in a cast iron pan or other oven safe pan until translucent. Cut asparagus into 1-inch pieces. Cook for three minutes. Lightly beat 6 eggs and pour over vegetables. Cook two minutes. Top with 1 cup shredded cheese. Cook in broiler for five minutes.

Grilled Asparagus with Prosciutto

Toss asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap each spear with one piece of prosciutto. Grill over medium low heat five to seven minutes.

Asparagus Sformato

Butter flan molds (cupcakes pans work well). Cut asparagus into thin discs. Blend a four ounce chicken breast into ¾ cup of cream. Stir in asparagus. Season with salt and pepper. Fill another baking tray with 1 inch of water and place the molds (or tin) into the water tray. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Creamy Asparagus Soup

Dice 4 shallots, 2 leeks, and 2 garlic cloves. Saute over medium heat till transparent. Chop edible portions of 3lbs asparagus into ½-inch pieces. Add and sauté two minutes. Add 8 cups of broth. Cook 20 minutes. Blend, season with salt and pepper, and still in half a cup each cream and grated Parmesan.