Italy is once again pushing ahead with a plan to link the mainland with Sicily in a massive infrastructure project that, even if everything goes according to plan, will take nearly eight years and 13.5 billion euros to construct.

The Strait of Messina Bridge will be "the biggest infrastructure project in the West," Transport Minister Matteo Salvini boasted on Wednesday in Rome after a government committee approved the project, its price tag the equivalent of $21.6 billion Cdn.

A bridge linking Sicily to Calabria has been proposed, approved and cancelled multiple times over several decades, with sometimes colourful history. Atlantic magazine deemed it, in 2023, "The Bridge That Divides Italy," as it has inspired strong reactions on both sides of the debate.

"Such a bridge has long be

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