The Eurocentric: Italy Returns To Roman Roots For Infrastructure
Davi Pimentel
To this day, Roman infrastructure has stood the test of time across Europe, from ancient stadiums, aqueducts, and the Appian Way. Now, Italy wants to return to its Roman roots with investments in infrastructure meant to modernize the nation. This includes investments in railways, water, light rail, subways, and, arguably, the most important, the Strait of Messina Bridge. This bridge will finally connect the island of Sicily to Calabria and will be the world's largest suspension bridge. Plans for this bridge have been discussed for thousands of years, dating back to Roman times when people first desired to connect Sicily with the mainland. Governments have continued to propose the bridge over the last sixty years, yet it has failed each time due to the daunting construction cost. The time is now to construct the bridge, along with investing heavily in infrastructure, particularly in southern Italy. Otherwise, northern and southern Italy will continue to diverge economically. This project, accompanied by numerous others, will help to modernize Italy’s economy.
The World’s Longest Suspension Bridge
Arguably, the most debated infrastructure project is the bridge that will traverse the Strait of Messina, connecting the island of Sicily with Calabria. A big concern about the bridge is the cost. However, there may be a silver lining in how Italy can construct the bridge, justifying the steep price tag. These two regions continue to rank among the worst nationally in regard to GDP per capita, employment rate, unemployment rate, percentage of individuals at risk of poverty, and virtually any economic indicator. While a lack of infrastructure is not the only factor that explains the economic challenges of these two regions, insufficient investments in infrastructure in Sicily and Calabria are key contributors.
The merits of the bridge continue to be debated, yet the government did officially approve its construction. In order to partially justify the cost of the bridge, Prime Minister Meloni proposed that the bridge be considered part of Italy's expanded defense spending for NATO. Recently, all member states of NATO agreed to spend at least five percent of their GDP on defense, primarily motivated by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. While this is a significant portion of a nation’s federal budget, 30 percent (1.5 percent of GDP) of these funds can be spent on critical infrastructure. While connecting Italy’s largest region by land and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea to mainland Italy is strategic, Meloni has struggled to find a strong argument to justify it for defense, and not only for economic growth in southern Italy.
Unfortunately for the Italian government, the United States has already rejected the proposal to claim the bridge as critical infrastructure related to defense. This means that the Italian government will need to find other funds for the bridge’s construction, not including the 1.5 percent of the nation’s GDP that the nation is obliged to use to fund infrastructure related to defense. This will be difficult considering that Italy already has the second-highest government debt burden, valued at 137.9 percent of its GDP in the first quarter of 2025, only behind Greece (152.5%).
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, still insists that the bridge is critical for military purposes. According to Tajani, the bridge would be crucial in the scenario that southern Italy is attacked. A strong counterargument for this would be that, given its role as an allegedly crucial piece of infrastructure, a military enemy could directly attack the bridge itself to prevent evacuations.
Additional infrastructure projects
Apart from the bridge, Italy has been investing heavily in infrastructure as part of its National Plan for Resilience and Recovery (PNRR), which has been the EU's strategy for economic recovery after the pandemic. This includes funds being used to finance projects to further improve public transportation infrastructure in places like Rome and Naples. Rome has used funds to lengthen the C line, the third line of its subway system. This is a delicate project as it involves creating subway stops near the Colosseum and Palazzo Venezia, building the subway line under these famous monuments. This requires measures to prevent damage or even the collapse of monuments caused by construction or the daily operation of these new subway stops. In Naples, the city continues to work on expanding subway lines and expanding its tram network to allow for more mobility for commuters who don’t drive.
Italy has additionally been working to upgrade regional rail lines to allow for shorter travel times between cities. This is particularly crucial in Sicily, where traveling within the region can be impossible without a car. As Italy’s largest region by land and has the fifth-largest regional population, investment in reliable public transportation is necessary in order to help grow the regional economy. When the railways are finally upgraded, travel time between Messina and Catania will be cut in half from an hour and fifteen minutes to only forty-five minutes.
Some of these projects will, unfortunately, be delayed. While they were originally planned to be included in Italy’s National Plan for Resilience and Recovery, the projects will not be able to be finished by next year, the deadline for all projects to be finished to qualify to be financed through grants or loans from the European Union. Rather than rushing to finish projects haphazardly, which could cause problems later on, it is smarter to delay them. An example of one such project is the Skymetro project in Genoa. This also prevents Italy from assuming more national debt than it can financially handle.
In Conclusion
While Italy is not currently able to construct the bridge across the Strait of Messina with the money that it must dedicate to NATO infrastructure, it is still a worthy project if the nation can find the funds. Investing in infrastructure is helping Italy modernize its economy and prove that it is worthy of foreign investment. Simultaneously, however, it makes sense that Italy is not following through with all projects originally planned to be included in its National Plan for Resilience and Recovery. This helps prevent projects from being completed in a rushed manner, resulting in poorly functioning infrastructure. Italy must particularly focus on investing in infrastructure in the south to finally allow for economic convergence between the north and south.
