Sicily's regional government has launched an online referendum to find out whether its inhabitants want a bridge linking their island to mainland Italy or not.
For the next six months anyone logging on to the regional government's website will be able to vote on whether controversial plans to build the 3,690-metre-long bridge should go ahead.
"We'll be able to see whether Sicilians are in favour of this bridge or not," said centre-right regional government chief Salvatore Cuffaro, a firm supporter of the project.
Italy's previous centre-right government approved a decree for the construction of a suspension bridge across the Messina Strait in 2002 and there has been controversy ever since.
It has been opposed by environmentalists and dogged by concerns over its safety.
After 2006 elections won by the centre-left coalition of Premier Romano Prodi, parliament then voted to shelve the project and to allocate the funds to other infrastructure transport projects in southern Italy.
Now Cuffaro is sure Sicilians will show they want the bridge built as soon as possible, putting pressure on the government to make the project a priority.
"I'm sure the result will bear us out. No one can deny that the bridge represents an instrument for development and a great opportunity to attract investments and reduce the distance - in every sense - between us and Europe".
Cuffaro has said Sicily could build the bridge on its own if the Italian government refuses to be involved.
He says one billion euros of the estimated five billion euro price tag would come out of European Union regional development funds. He says the much of the rest will be paid for by the toll fees collected once it is constructed.
Despite luke-warm support in Rome, many local politicians and industrialists support the project, insisting it is essential to any efforts to pull Sicily out of its deep-rooted economic doldrums.
Once built, the bridge would replace slow ferry services between Sicily and the mainland. It has been designed to handle 4,500 cars an hour and 200 trains a day.
Work on the bridge had been scheduled to start this year and end in 2012.
