Viganella is a small town in Italy whose inhabitants dread arrival of the winter season. The reason being that each year for 84 days in a row, the sun would not shine in the town as it went behind the 1,600-Meter high mountain that covered the town. The 197 inhabitants were plunged into a near darkness and just waited for the 84 days to pass so that they can once again feel the heat of the sun. With the sun not shining in the town the inhabitants lived a depressed life a scenario which docs call the 'Seasonal Affective Disorder' or SAD.
But finally their pain has been heard of and the authorities have just installed a 8-meter wide and 5-meter tall mirror that has been installed on a mountain so that it can reflect the sun's light on to the town for approximately 8 hours every day. The gargantuan sun mirror is made of an eight-by-five meter (26x16ft) sheet of steel and positioned above a nearby peak to reflect sun rays onto Viganella's main square. This enormous mirror is completely operated by a computer that regularly tracks sun's path. The result is that starting in 2006, the town was able to celebrate the first winter sun in 800 years!
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