PASSO DEL TONALE, Italy — Place names fuel the imagination and stir dreams, evoking history: Passo Paradiso, the cable car to Angelo, Val di Sole, Val Camonica. There is ancient history here, from Celtic deities to rock carvings; tragic history, too, from World War I, known in these mountains as the White War; and the story of the present, shaped by tourism in both summer and winter.

At the center is Passo del Tonale, straddling Lombardy, Trentino and South Tyrol. Ski lifts, slopes and mountain huts fill the landscape. And at Passo Paradiso, 8,480 feet above sea level, a project is now taking shape to give these mountains a new attraction: a large glass walkway, made entirely of glass, including its floor and side barriers.

The goal is to give tourists a 360-degree panorama of Val Camonica, in the province of Brescia, and Val di Sole, in Trentino. A panoramic paradise, because apparently what nature already provides is not enough.

That is the idea behind SIT, the local tourism-resort company, which is investing €22 million to offer more to skiers and summer visitors.

The see-through platform, according to some comments online, will be “very exciting for children and young people who love mountain landscapes.” The structure has been given the English name “SkyWalk.” The idea is to create the sensation of walking through thin air — or, in other words, through the sky. The loop trail will run along the top of a rocky outcrop, offering not only a view into the void but also vistas of the surrounding valleys, including Passo del Tonale, which lies within the municipality of Vermiglio, the town made famous by Maura Delpero’s film.

Alongside the glass sections will be stretches of rock and dirt, as well as the walls of an “avant-garde” mountain refuge. Construction has begun, with helicopters ferrying materials to the site. The project is scheduled for completion next year.

But many see an environmental “hell” in all this. “Immediately halt the work and open a public discussion on the model of tourism development to be pursued in this area,” Mountain Wilderness says on its website. The appeal is directed at the Lombardy regional government and the municipality of Ponte di Legno, in the province of Brescia, which includes Passo Paradiso within its territory.

“This project inevitably alters the way this landscape is perceived and understood,” the organization says in its appeal. “The SkyWalk is being presented as a way to enhance the area’s natural and historical heritage. But today, true enhancement should mean exactly the opposite: freeing the mountains from the constant need to be transformed and equipped with new infrastructure.”

Development is precisely what SIT is pursuing. The company is 54.25% privately owned, with the remainder divided among the Province of Brescia, five municipalities and the Val Camonica Foundation, which holds a 40.41% stake.

Manuela Baldracchi and Margherita Franzoni of the Trento and Val Camonica chapters of Italia Nostra write: “The ski area certainly does not need to impose structures like these on the landscape to increase its appeal. Although SIT is required under its charter to reinvest profits in new facilities - a provision that should itself be reconsidered - it should, together with the Municipality, its minority shareholder, pursue a policy of protecting the Alpine environment, particularly in light of the effects of climate change.

Their appeal to the municipalities of Ponte di Legno and Vermiglio is direct: “Immediately suspend the work and rethink a tourism plan that offers a mountain free of new infrastructure, whether classified as light or heavy.”

There have also been similar calls from politicians. Sara Onofrio and Dario Balotta, spokespeople for Europa Verde–Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra, describe the SkyWalk as High-altitude concrete development disguised as “enhancement.”

They add: “At a time of climate crisis, the Alps do not need a balcony for selfies.”

Mountain Wilderness’ President Luigi Casanova is reviving a proposal he made in 1991 with Alexander Langer, the first President of the European Green Group.

The idea, now entrusted to the publishing platform Vita, founded by Riccardo Bonacina and edited by Stefano Arduini, was for “a European Park of the Central Alps - Peace, starting with Stelvio.” Shaken by the tragedy of the war in Yugoslavia, Langer believed nature could become a bond between peoples, a means of fostering fraternity.

The goal was to turn the Alps into a great natural monument and build Europe with respect for the environment.

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