Less than three weeks before the Milan Expo opens on May 1, the site of the showpiece event is still a mass of trucks raising dust and workers in hard hats racing to finish building after delays, corruption and cost overruns.

Italy has had four different governments in the seven years since Milan was chosen to follow the 2010 Shanghai Expo and has undergone its most severe economic crisis since World War II.

But 40-year-old Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is counting on the event to reinforce fragile signs of recovery and put a more modern face on Italy after the years of recession.