The first fair ground in Milan was opened in 1906, as the area of a World's fair, and in time for the opening of the Simplon Tunnel. The fairground at that time extended over the current area and the nearby Sempione Park.
Fieramilano is a fairground located in an area on the border between the towns of Rho and Pero, near the A4 motorway, west of Milan. Opened in 2005 with an investment of €755 million, the complex designed by architect Massimiliano Fuksas includes eight pavilions for a total of 345,000 m2 (3,710,000 sq ft) of gross covered exhibition space and 60,000 m2 (650,000 sq ft) of outdoor space,[3] making it one of the largest centers in the world.
The new exhibition center, Fiera Milano Rho has been opend in the year 2006 and covers approximately 2 million square feet for exhibition space. The new fairground of Milan in Rho Pero has a distance of 15 km to Milan city center. It is connected by the motorways A4 Turin-Milan-Venice, A8/A9 Milan-Airport Malpensa, Varese/Como as well as by the West tangential. For visitors and exhibitors are more than 14.000 parking lots with modern park system at disposal.
The red underground line 1 has been extended up to the fair stop Rho. Thus the new fairground can be attained easily from the Milan city center by public transport.
In preparation of the World Expo 2015 there are ecological projects in progress to connect and transform the two exhibition centers. The exhibition area is connected to the city center through Milan Metro Line 1 stop Rho Fiera. A suburban railway station is also present.