Since the Italian Republic was formed 150 years ago, around about the time that Edward Whymper was the first to conquer the Matterhorn, France have laid claim to the three main peaks of the Mont Blanc Massive, including Mont Blanc itself, Europe’s highest peak at 4,810m. Italian mountaineers have always been in denial about this and insist that Mont Blanc is on both French and Italian soil, or rock, if you prefer.
The row had flared up again with the appearance of the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, who turned up to mark the opening of a new cable car, €138m’s worth of Italian engineering, taking sightseers up to one of the disputed points. There were no equivalent French dignitaries at the opening ceremony and the Italians suspect a snub.
Google Maps have the three main peaks clearly within French territory, with the French-Italian border sweeping to the south at the summit. This makes the disputed peaks part of the French town of Saint Gervais Les Bains and not as the Italians insist, part of Courmeyeur. Other sources have it that the border is on the summit.
Two leading Italian cartographers stated in a recent newsletter to the Italian Alpine club that the summit was shared. They noted that two French experts, in their 1999 Dictionnaire de la Montagne, agreed with them, saying that “the border must logically be on the summit”, and “based on these considerations, we can conclude that the summit of Mont Blanc is joint Italian-French and should be marked as such on official French maps”
Prime Minister Renzi would no doubt agree. He referred to the border dispute during the ceremony to celebrate the new cable car that ferries sightseers 3,463m up to the peak at Punta Helbronner. He described the project, which was constructed by 500 workers in temperatures as low as -30c as “the eighth wonder of the world”, perhaps an overstatement but nonetheless, a very impressive feat of Italian engineering.
“We haven’t invaded France” Mr Renzi said acknowledging the dispute and poo-pooing allegations that Italy has got ahead of itself by building the spectacular observation deck slap bang in the middle of the disputed zone. He also diplomatically fended off questions from French journalist about the conspicuous absence of French officials at the event. The last word went to Mr Renzi, “The mountain helps to make the heart bigger, helps you breathe and see the horizon and in Europe we need to take the bigger view” he went on . . “today at Punta Helbronner, we have seen the highest point of Europe and I hope never to see it’s lowest”