“Venice is a city built on hundreds of bridges: the work made by the Committee Expo Venice represents a bridge to China and certainly also to Milan” Raffaele Speranzon, the Assessor for Tourism of the Province, used this metaphor to describe the role played by Venice (and by the Committee Expo) at the world exposition in Shanghai which has just ended. The role of Venice in Shanghai represents an important experience to face the two future challenges: the exposition in Milan, in 2015, and the candidature of the lagoon city (and all North-East) to become the European Capital of Culture in 2019.

The final meeting of the venetian experience in China has been held in the room ‘Piovego’ of the Palazzo Ducale: it was the occasion to assess this experience and use the analysis for the Milan edition.

The success of the venetian participation has been stressed by the Plenipotentiary Minister and Secretary General of the General Commissariat of the Government for the Shanghai Expo 2010, Maria Assunta Accili, and by the President of the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade, the Ambassador Umberto Vattani.

The Shanghai Expo – Accili explained – was that of records: 75 million participants, 192 countries represented and 20 thousand events organised in 6 months. Unlike many others, the Italian Pavilion will not be demolished, rather it will serve to promote culture and trade.”

There is another record for Venice: the Chinese authorities requested that all the objects presented at the venetian stand remain in Shanghai to be exhibited at the Expo Museum which will open in 2011 (in all other cases the authorities requested only one object, what demonstrates the high rating achieved by Venice).

One of the most important achievement of the Committee Expo was to work through a collaborative system with a heterogeneous team of public and private institutions. A sort of “institutional concord” was reached, creating a new solid platform from which starting to promote, from now, the participation in the Expo 2015.

Giorgio Orsoni, Mayor of Venice, thanked Laura Fincato, appointed by the Mayor for the direction of the Committee, for her work. Another recognition came from the Milan Expo representatives. Alberto Mina, Director of Institutional Relations and Content Development for the Expo 2015 Spa, recognised to Veneto and Venice how important their support was to the candidature of Milan and he proposed to the Venetian and Veneto institutions to organise in Venice the first lap of the “road show” illustrating the Expo 2015 all around Italy and the world.

This invitation was welcomed by Orsoni who took this opportunity to invite, in view of this event, to seriously think on the transports system and the links between Venice and Milan.

In fact, there is the risk that – if things remain as they are – Venice remains nearer to Shanghai than to the capital of Lombardy.