A dying ski resort in northern Italy has come back to life thanks to an igloo village built by migrants.
Davide Midali, who owns and manages a restaurant in the San Simone resort, came up with the idea of the igloo village initially as a joke.
Midali decided to give it a try and soon after asylum seekers staying nearby offered to help him.
"When some of them saw me creating these blocks of snow, they voluntarily decided to give me a hand to reach a common goal — this meant seeing the structure grow day after day — as you need at least four or five days to complete each igloo," said Midali.
Nowadays the migrants — mostly from the Gambia — can be seen positioning blocks to build the igloos.
Omar Kanteh, who also works on general maintenance of the village San Simone, says working with Midali has been “an incredible experience”.
Midali says working with the asylum seekers has really helped both parties learn more about each others' lives.
"The experience has been positive and very constructive, both on my side, in that you create a relationship which leads to integration, you gets to know these young men, their story and their background and they also learn about our background and life here."
The igloo village has started to bring back tourism to San Simone.
People can come for a day and take pictures of the igloos or stay in one for €100 a night.
