Two weeks ago, my husband and I visited the Expo again. This time, we focused on entering only the Italy Pavilion because we'd heard it would take more than six hours to get in. So, we made up our mind to wait in a long line. The Italy Pavilion, here we go!

There was indeed a long line in front of the Italy Pavilion, and many people including some of my friends had said that it was the best one. So, we were looking forward to seeing the exhibition.

Since we learned that we would need a better portable chair from the last visit, we bought them online. Actually, they turned out to be really useful. While waiting, we could sit comfortably. We both took our Kindles, so we enjoyed reading, chatting and sometimes even saw a few events staying in the line. The line had closed in two hours.

I spotted a guy wearing shots printed with the Expo mascot, Myakumyaku, and a pair of shoes looked like the mascot. He was even wearing the mascot colors, red and blue socks.

While waiting in the line, we came across some entertainments, but unfortunately, they were far from our spot. I tried to take some photos, but mostly they were blurry.

An entertainment from the Italy pavilion.

On the opposite side of the Italy Pavilion, there was also a performance by comedians from Yoshimoto (a talent agency based on Osaka), but that was far as well.

Fortunately, we spotted a Toyota's Mirai, a car powered by oxygen and hydrogen.

When we started waiting in the line, it was about 1p.m., but it completely became dark. The Italia pavilion was beautifully lit up. It was designed like the Colosseum.

The exhibition began with the presentation about a bicycle race, and I assume it's one of the pavilion's sponsors. I don't know much about bicycle races in Europe ( I only know about Tour de France), so I learned that Italy has a famous race as well.

It is called the Giro d'Italia, which is held in every May. The picture below shows the winner's trophy. Here is a highlight of the Giro d'Italia. Watching beautiful nature scenery in Italy was fascinating for me.

After enjoying the bike race, we finally entered the inside. The first piece we saw was the Farnese Atlas, created around 150 AD. The Celestial sphere carried by Atlas became the model for the first celestial globe in the 16C. I was so impressed. It was its first exhibition in Asia. The details of muscles and draping the cape was absolutely breathtaking. Even though, it was a statue, it felt like he was carrying the very heavy thing.

The next statue was Jesus made by Michelangelo. He was completely naked, and I think it's rare because of the religious reason.

A portrait of Itō Mancio painted by Tintoretto. To be honest, I didn't know anything about Itō Mancio until seeing this portrait. He was one of the four boys who sent abroad for studying Christianity in 1582. He worked hard and met the Pope, but unfortunately when he returned to Japan, the government had closed the country off from the outside world. Sadly, he couldn't spread what he had learned. He passed away without fulfilling his mission. I'm glad that I could learn about this historical connection between Italy and Japan.

There was also a display about the winter Olympic games in 2026, which will be held in Milan. The Olympic flames has been showcased.

Another exhibition connected to Japan featured Arturo Ferrarin, who was a pilot of Kingdom of Italy, successfully flew from Rome to Tokyo in 1920. The picture below shows the model of his airplane.

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space created by Umberto Boccioni. This sculpture is appeared on a flip side of the Italian 20-euro coin.

Caravaggio is one of my favorite painters, and I was especially looking forward to seeing The Entombment of Christ in person.

He was a master of capturing human expressions. I've visited Vatican City at the age of 19, and I saw this painting there. I still remembered I was overwhelmed by this powerful painting style.

The Banner of Justice painted by Pietro Perugino, who influenced both Raphael and Michelangelo. This piece was shown in Japan for the first time.

We also saw Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks. Unfortunately, visitors weren’t allowed much time to view them, so my photos were mostly out of focus.

We also saw lots of furniture and some lamps display. They are probably one of the spongers.

When we left the pavilion, it was almost 9:00 p.m., so we decided to get home.

We've visited many pavilions so far, and I can understand why people say the Italy Pavilion is the best because they show us ”genuine"(authenticity). We deeply appreciate it. The pavilion was full of art, and I indeed agree that the pavilion is the best so far.

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