Bureaucratic formalities are partly to blame. An even bigger problem has been a bitter and lengthy legal battle involving rival companies tendering for the reconstruction project.
Good news is at hand, however.
In mid-November, La Fenice cleared the final bureaucratic hurdle standing between it and the restart of a reconstruction project due to see the opera house finished for October 1st, 2001. Just as well, too, that La Fenice means the phoenix. Rising from the ashes, even if a little tardily, can be taken for granted. Two weeks before La Fenice got its longoverdue green light, the state-controlled electricity company, ENEL, made an initial public offering of 35 per cent of its shares. The privatisation and the reconstruction of La Fenice might appear to have little in common, being merely fragments in the complex mosaic of the Italian labyrinth.