Funivia Malcesine - Monte Baldo, Aerial tramway at Lake Garda, Italy.
Funivia Malcesine connects the town of Malcesine to Monte Baldo using a two-stage cable car system that reaches 1760 meters in elevation. The first segment carries passengers upward at a gentler angle, while the second stage continues to the summit with modern cabins.
Plans for a cable car from Malcesine to Monte Baldo date to after World War I, when General Andrea Graziani proposed a line to Bocca di Navene with a hotel and holiday homes; that project was abandoned. Revived after World War II with tourism, it was backed by a committee founded in 1950 under Alberto Pariani and by the municipality after his 1952 election as mayor. The line opened in October 1962 in the presence of President Antonio Segni; in 2002 it was rebuilt by Hölzl, and President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi inaugurated the new system that July.
The lower station in Malcesine and the top station at Passo Tratto Spino both display a historic cabin from the original 1962 cable car. At the middle station in San Michele, a small monument recalls the lift's history. The operator, Azienda Trasporti Funicolari Malcesine Monte Baldo, was founded in 1955 and is controlled by a public consortium of the municipality of Malcesine, the Province of Verona and the Verona Chamber of Commerce.
The cable car operates 10 months a year, with a total journey of just under 15 minutes across two sections. The valley station sits in Malcesine above a 180-space covered car park linked by lifts to the bus terminal. The top station, Tratto Spino, stands at 1760 m, so expect colder conditions up there than in town.
The upper-stage cabins were the first in the world to rotate a full 360 degrees during the trip, installed in the 2002 rebuild by Hölzl Seilbahnbau. A historic cabin from the original 1962 cable car is displayed at both the valley and mountain stations.
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