Baldo Mountain’s Cable Car Custodian Celebrates 40 Years of Hospitality
A life on the cable car. Flora Menotti has been living for nearly 40 years at 1,760 meters on Tratto Spino, a stunning balcony overlooking Lake Garda, ready to greet tourists once they descend from the lift connecting the lakeside town to Monte Baldo.
Just a stone’s throw from the cable car station stands the Baita dei Forti, a rest stop that is never closed.
Fior Menotti, originally from Varone, a small town near Riva del Garda known for its waterfall cascading from a hundred meters into a ravine carved by water over 20,000 years, runs the place.
The main character and the view
The lady of the Baldo does not hide her age—her name is fitting for the Veronese peaks famous worldwide for their botanical garden, breathtaking panoramas, and.. flora (with a lowercase ‘f,’ of course).
Now nearly 72 springs old, since the end of 1963 she has been serving grappas and, above all, smiles to the visitors of her mountain hut.
She arrived here a few months after the opening of the Cable Car, June 1962, officially inaugurated in September of the same year by President Antonio Segni.
On the ground, or rather on the mountain, she has rightfully earned the title of queen of Baldo.
Life and hospitality at the hut
Watchful eyes of a ski station with untapped potential, she welcomes everyone with friendliness and warmth, so much so that the cozy locale overlooking Lake Garda becomes a Big Brother house.
Unlike the television product, here you don’t sell fleeting fame, but genuine cordiality that warms even during summer, the spirits of tourists.
Amidst nature and paradise, all year round—365 days—it’s easy to lose contact with reality, to feel isolated and distant from the world.
Daily life and memories
“When melancholy strikes, I take the cable car and in just over 10 minutes I am in Malcesine,” Flora Menotti, widow and mother of Fabrizio and Marco, says while sitting in her hut.
But the time for solitude doesn’t end at Baldo.
“In winter, there’s enough movement of people. Oh, small numbers compared to the mass that comes in spring and summer.
And think, in the early years it was exactly the opposite. People came here to ski, attracted by decent facilities, the lack of competition from winter resorts of that era, and above all, an unmatched panoramic view.”
Environmental challenges and the past of celebrities
Such issues are still present today. “Fortunately, but one element is missing nowadays: water.
The hotel below closed 20 years ago. Today, it’s difficult to accommodate people without giving them the chance to shower.
We have our own reservoir, complete with a rainwater collection and purification system, which we treat as a precious treasure.
And without water, there’s no possibility of artificial snowmaking, thus ensuring a regular winter season.”
Despite everything, Baldo has been and still is a destination for notable personalities.
“Yes, once Walter Chiari visited, then Renato Rascel and Gigliola Cinquetti.”
There haven’t been a shortage of sports figures either. “Frequent visitors included skiing champions such as Leonard Stock and Franz Klamer,” intervienes Marco, the director of the Baldo slopes, “for them, it was like skiing towards the lake.”
It’s a pity that the Panorama ski lift, which descends along the mountain’s lakeside slope, remains desolately closed today.