There are few things Italians do better than dreaming big against the odds. Take the multi-million-dollar plan that’s been in the works since the 1990s to build the world’s longest suspension bridge across the Straits of Messina in the heart of Mafia land. Or the very existence of the city of Venice, built on a lagoon system that’s now better protected from extreme weather by mechanical flood gates that took more than 20 years to realize. Now, plans to build a multi-million-dollar ski facility on a snowless northern Italian mountain may prove equally challenging. The bald mountain is the Monte San Primo, a gorgeous 1,682 meter (5,518 foot) promontory that accounts for much of the landscape view from the north end of Lake Como. The quaint cobblestone city of Bellagio, at its base, is known as the “pearl” of the lake for beauty that has lured A-list celebs (and wealthy Russians), who own the majority of lavish villas nearby. But ever since the city of Bellagio last year won the backing of the national and regional government to fund a ski area project that it hopes will lure winter tourists, there has been trouble in this mountain paradise. The plan, priced at 5 million euros (about $5.4 million), would see the construction of a large parking lot, toboggan runs and new lifts in an area that was a thriving ski destination 50 years ago, but closed a decade ago to winter sports as temperatures rose and snowfalls thinned.