Giant mirror to light up village

Barbara McMahon in Rome
Wednesday September 14, 2005
The Guardian


Residents of Viganella, a small hamlet in the Italian Alps, have more reason than most to dread the imminent arrival of winter. From November to February, they lose the sun behind a mountain ridge that towers over the village and the 197 inhabitants live in permanent gloom.

But now residents, led by their mayor Pierfranco Midali, may have solved the problem - they want to erect a giant mirror, powered by an electric motor, sited to the north of the village, 80 miles from Milan. The mirror would track the path of the sun and reflect rays into the village square. The result would be a small piazza bathed in sunlight and warmth where children could play and adults sit and sip coffee and grappa, just like the rest of Italy. "Even at midday, it's like four or five o'clock in the evening," says Mayor Midali. "For us the advantages are obvious. It would have a good psychological effect on the population and we would have a spot where it wasn't so cold and we could enjoy social activities."

The mayor, a full-time train driver, says villagers paid for a feasibility study and an architect and engineer to draft the plan. "We have been very careful to do nothing that would spoil the countryside. It's not a big mirror and it will be hidden in woods so hardly anyone will even see it."

Although villagers can contribute a fifth of the €94,000 (£63,000) cost from local funds, provincial authorities have already denied them the rest. At least La Stampa newspaper backs them. It said: "In an Italy which for a while dreamed of big projects like the bridge to connect Sicily to the mainland, it wouldn't be bad to start with this ... a small but useful project."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1569442,00.html

Sunlight, mirrors, little Alpine wooden chalets.......