A Bridge Too Far?

Italy’s Messina Project May Be Its Most Enduring Obsession

My favorite coastal view in Italy is from Villa San Giovanni in Calabria, looking north -- yes, north -- across the Strait of Messina to Sicily.

On the far side, the city of Messina can look like an afterthought beneath the commanding, often snow-capped shoulders of Mt. Etna, where a faint gray plume sometimes curls up from the crater. In between, a na…