It has been a dream some 50 years in the making – but finally that dream is becoming reality, said Francesco Sisci in Formiche (Rome). Last week, Giorgia Meloni's government defied the naysayers to announce it had approved a 3,300m bridge from the mainland to Sicily, with work to start in a matter of weeks.

The world's longest suspension bridge, the €13.5 billion structure would transport six lanes of traffic and a double track of trains over the Strait of Messina – a stretch of water that has challenged mankind since "Odysseus and his companions were side by side at the oars" attempting to navigate the twin perils of Scylla and Charybdis. Now those two "rocks" will be "united" and the Strait – and Sicily – forever changed.

Attempts to bridge the Messina Strait go back to 251BC, said

See Full Page