The stunning news came in mid-February that Italy’s gigantic Mose project—building underwater barriers to save Venice from catastrophic flooding—might be doomed to fail. This bombshell fell after decades of planning, construction starting in 2003, 5.5 billion euros of investment, and, with greed playing a front-page role, the criminal prosecutions for corruption of numerous political figures. As revealed in the February 6, 2017 issue of the Italian periodical Espresso, a forthcoming report from Gian Mario Paolucci, a former Professor of Metallurgy at the University of Padua, targets among other defects the fact that while the hinges submitted to initial tests were of high quality, manufactured in Vicenza, the hinges actually to be installed are manufactured in Eastern Europe and of possibly fatally inferior quality.

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Salvatore Settis, edited by André Naffis-Sahely
If Venice Dies
New Vessel Press, 180 pages, $16.95
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