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food / travel

Oldest Tunnel Through Alps Reopens, No Cars Allowed

Tourists can take a trip through time—and across the French-Italian border—in the 75-meter Monte Viso Tunnel, a footpath originally built during the Renaissance.

Monte Viso Tunnel entrance
Monte Viso Tunnel entrance
Andrea Garassino

MONVISO — The oldest tunnel ever built through the Alps is set to reopen this week, giving summer tourists a chance to cross the mile-high border between Italy and France—on foot!

The 75-meter Monte Viso Tunnel was originally constructed in 1480 to connect the Marquisate of Saluzzo, now located in Italy's Piedmont region, with the nearby Dauphiné region in France.

The tunnel was designed to increase trade between the two neighbors while bypassing their common enemy of Savoy, which controlled nearby mountain passes and restricted commerce. Dug at a height of 2,880 m (9,449 ft), the tunnel was an engineering feat in its time and took six years to complete.

Workers used iron, fire, boiling water, and vinegar to bore the tunnel, with the costs shared equally by the governments of Saluzzo and Dauphiné. After Saluzzo's annexation to Savoy in 1601 the tunnel lost its strategic importance, and remained closed on and off for centuries.

The first major renovations began in 1907, when the Italian government teamed up with the Italian hiking association to restore access to the tunnel. A joint project two years ago by the Italian region of Piedmont and French authorities extended the tunnel to its original length, repairing erosion that damaged the footpath over the centuries.

Designed with a height of 2-2.5 m to allow the passage of mules carrying goods, the tunnel now only rises to 1.7 m for most of its length, and remains unlit. It stays shut every winter on the French side to block the entry of snow, but reopens in the summer for tourists to cross from Monviso to the French regional park of Queyras on the other side of the tunnel.


Part of a popular regional hiking trail, reaching the Monviso tunnel requires a three-hour hike from the nearest town in Italy, while it's only a two-hour hike from the nearest mountain lodge on the French side. In a time of border walls and Brexit, tourists in the Alps can walk through a Renaissance-era border that remains open almost six centuries later.

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Economy

Lex Tusk? How Poland’s Controversial "Russian Influence" Law Will Subvert Democracy

The new “lex Tusk” includes language about companies and their management. But is this likely to be a fair investigation into breaking sanctions on Russia, or a political witch-hunt in the business sphere?

Photo of President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda

Polish President Andrzej Duda

Piotr Miaczynski, Leszek Kostrzewski

-Analysis-

WARSAW — Poland’s new Commission for investigating Russian influence, which President Andrzej Duda signed into law on Monday, will be able to summon representatives of any company for inquiry. It has sparked a major controversy in Polish politics, as political opponents of the government warn that the Commission has been given near absolute power to investigate and punish any citizen, business or organization.

And opposition politicians are expected to be high on the list of would-be suspects, starting with Donald Tusk, who is challenging the ruling PiS government to return to the presidency next fall. For that reason, it has been sardonically dubbed: Lex Tusk.

University of Warsaw law professor Michal Romanowski notes that the interests of any firm can be considered favorable to Russia. “These are instruments which the likes of Putin and Orban would not be ashamed of," Romanowski said.

The law on the Commission for examining Russian influences has "atomic" prerogatives sewn into it. Nine members of the Commission with the rank of secretary of state will be able to summon virtually anyone, with the powers of severe punishment.

Under the new law, these Commissioners will become arbiters of nearly absolute power, and will be able to use the resources of nearly any organ of the state, including the secret services, in order to demand access to every available document. They will be able to prosecute people for acts which were not prohibited at the time they were committed.

Their prerogatives are broader than that of the President or the Prime Minister, wider than those of any court. And there is virtually no oversight over their actions.

Nobody can feel safe. This includes companies, their management, lawyers, journalists, and trade unionists.

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