The ongoing Shanghai Expo is a unique opportunity to promote "made in Italy", president of Italian fashion company Salvatore Ferragamo, Ferruccio Ferragamo, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"The Shanghai Expo is an important landmark in China's continuous development," he said. "I love Chinese millenary culture and untiring vitality."

"One of the most visited pavilions (some 30,000 visitors per day), the Italian pavilion is an ideal place to show Italy's excellences," stressed Ferragamo, who is the elder son of the shoe designer and founder of the eponymous Florence-based company, Salvatore Ferragamo.

"Our brand aims at being at the forefront of this historical moment. It was our company to inaugurate the pavilion's space dedicated to 'the making of', with an atelier demonstrating shoemakers' expertise in the art of crafting shoes, defined by Italy's ancient heritage fused with contemporary design."

Ferragamo told Xinhua that he personally feels very close to Shanghai. "I keep a vivid memory of my first trip to Shanghai in 1994," he recalled. "I went to Shanghai with my brother to open our family's company first store in Chinese mainland, and I remember there were plenty of bicycles and grey-color clothing all around."

"Since then I started traveling to China at least once a year and I saw the country going through amazing transformations," he said.

"In 2008 we chose to celebrate Salvatore Ferragamo company's 80th-year birthday in Shanghai, paying homage to the high-spirited atmosphere and magnificent future of this metropolis and to China' s fast growth."

Ferragamo said that China's vitality reminds him of his father' s pioneer spirit. Emigrated to the United States when he was very young, Salvatore Ferragamo worked with many Hollywood stars in the 1920s, before returning to Italy to found a hand-made footwear company.

Since then, celebrities from all over the world including actresses Marilyn Monroe and Zhang Ziyi continued to wear Ferragamo's shoes.

Evolved into a luxury goods empire spanning the world, the company is now looking at China for growth as consumption surges in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

"In April we inaugurated in Shanghai International Financial Center our 650-square-meter flagship, which is presently the biggest in Asia," Ferragamo said. "In China we have 40 stores in 28 cities and we plan to open another seven or eight in the next two or three years."

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