Sicily and Italy-- joined...now literally?

"The most useless and harmful Italian project of the past 100 years," said Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi, when he referred to Silvio Berlusconi, the former Prime Minister of Italy's idea to build a bridge that would connect Sicily to Italy's mainland.

Thousands of angry Italians rallied throughout Rome until they reached the office of the current Prime Minister Romano Prodi, demanding that Prodi's new, centre-left government follow through with Berlusconi's former bridge plans.

Prodi's government insists that more urgent projects in southern Italy are far more necessary, highway improvement for example.

Most of the protesters were from Sicily and Italy's southern region of Calabria, regions that are often linked with Mafia ties. Berlusconi himself has frequently been accused of having Mafia ties and although this notion has never been proved totally accurate, no thanks to his ridiculous affluence, his notion of connecting Sicily and Italy via bridge in order to promote modernization of Sicily could be seen as a plea to help the Mafia. (Just a hunch...)

Check out the Article:

Thousands demonstrate in Rome; demand government build bridge to Sicily

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=w091921A