Shanghai Expo is a model for Milan Expo 2015, because it displays the innovation capacity of a country, Milan mayor Letizia Moratti told Xinhua in an interview on Friday.

"Shanghai Expo will be a monumental exposition, with many magnificent buildings created by architects from all over the world," she said.

"We have many things to learn from China's ability to quickly innovate, open to the world and adopt the best technologies," she said while extending her warm congratulations to the opening of Shanghai Expo.

As Milan mayor and Special Representative of the Italian government for the Milan Expo 2015, Moratti will go to Shanghai twice for the Expo.

"Milan Expo 2015 will look very different from the one of Shanghai, because its beauty will be more related to nature than to buildings. Therefore the two cities can exchange complementary and interesting experiences," she stressed.

Talking at the opening ceremony of a boat show which helps to pave the way for Milan Expo, she said she is working in close contact with the Shanghai authorities to make the best of the partnerships between the two cities.

"Milan is cooperating with Shanghai through important university-level agreements. The first Chinese-Italian joint campus was projected when I was Education and University Minister in 2005. It gives the opportunity to some 300 students each year to study economics and engineering in both countries."

Education-level partnerships are also important for the plans to transform the site of Milan Expo 2015 - whose leading theme is "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life" - into a global headquarters for advanced scientific research to be linked to the world's best research centers and universities.

Moratti highlighted that Milan and Shanghai are working on a new important joint project on environmental management, starting from an intense university-level exchange.

She finally invited citizens not to miss an extraordinary art exhibition in Milan with the title of Two Empires: the Eagle and the Dragon, which displays 200 masterpieces juxtaposing the Roman Empire and the Chinese dynasties Qin and Han.

"In the year of Shanghai Expo we are paying tribute to China with extraordinary art exhibitions. We thank Chinese authorities for lending us unique masterpieces which have never been out of China before, we feel proud of this," she said.