Lessons learned? World leaders gather for Rome G20 amid calls for greater global cooperation

Leaders gather in the shadow of the pandemic and a call to work togther more, reports Sofia Barbarani in Italy

US President Joe Biden meets with French President Emmanuel Macron in Rome (REUTERS)

Not far from central Rome’s patchwork of cobblestones, narrow alleys and mass tourism is the lesser-known district of wide avenues and clean architectural lines set to play host to the G20 summit this weekend.

Envisioned in 1935 by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the EUR (Esposizione Universale Roma) neighbourhood in south Rome was built for the 1942 world’s fair and as a celebration of two decades of Fascist rule.

For years Mussolini watched as his ambitious plan came to life, undisturbed by the advent of World War Two, until the project was forced to shut down in 1942 and the Expo cancelled, leaving in its wake an incomplete neighbourhood of Rationalist buildings.