There are few things Italians do better than dreaming big against the odds. Take the multi-million-dollar plan that’s been in the works since the 1990s to build the world’s longest suspension bridge across the Straits of Messina in the heart of Mafia land. Or the very existence of the city of Venice, built on a lagoon system that’s now better protected from extreme weather by mechanical flood gates that took more than 20 years to realize.
Now, plans to build a multi-million-dollar ski facility on a snowless northern Italian mountain may prove equally challenging.