Tuesday, September 19, 2006

A DEMONSTRATION

One newspaper reports that there were 6,000 protesters, another that there were 10,000. Whichever is the case, a lot of Sicilians travelled to Rome today to make their feelings felt about the government's scrapping of the Messina Bridge Project. [The government says it prefers to concentrate on the infrastructure.]

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I imagine it would have cost a lot of money too. What do you think, should it have been built?

Red said...

From what I've heard, the bridge was always a bit of a white elephant. I remember it being talked about when I was a little schoolgirl in Italy... and we're talking several moons ago!

If the government really DID focus on the infrastructure, it wouldn't be half bad, but chances are that the Mezzogiorno will see very little of the money set aside for such a project.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi, both. In my inexpert opinion, the bridge should be built as it would help Sicily to modernise and bring in more tourists. Also the Port of Messina cannot now cope with the amount of traffic passing through it. You are right, Red; that will be the test, whether they actually do spend enough money on the infrastructure of the south.

Ballpoint Wren said...

That Wikipedia article mentioned fears that the local Mafia would get a monopoly on the contracts. Do you think that had anything to do with it?

Ferries are picturesque and pleasant, but a bridge would streamline things. I sat in traffic for over an hour yesterday, so I'm all for streamlining traffic.

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