Vascellari: the Freccia nel Cielo implant is completely safe. Three weekends with service to Col Drusciè
CORTINA. Cortina gathers courage, looks beyond the shock of the Mottarone tragedy and is the first to reopen one of the valley’s historic cable cars, the Freccia Nel Cielo. It will happen tomorrow when, after the long break linked to Covid, the gondola lift that leads to Tofana, a completely redesigned plant and just over a year in project financing from Tofana srl together with Leitner ropeways, will return to operation. Forty-seven 10-seat cabins for an investment of 100 million euros, which in a few minutes bring tourists from the center of the Ampezzo town to Cima Tofana, at 3,244 meters above sea level. The service, limited until 19 June at the weekend, also due to the large amount of snow still present at high altitude, will for now only reach the first “leap” of the plant, the one that leads to Col Drusciè at 1,778 meters. Then, with the start of the season, the intermediate stop of Ra Valles will also be operational, at 2,475 meters. Nobody hides the particular significance that the restart of a cable car system assumes today, in the days of pain for the 14 victims of Stresa. “The Arrow in the sky is completely safe – underlines the president of Tofana srl, Andrea Vascellari – always has been and always will be. For us, safety comes first ». And on the controls it is ready to convey a reassuring message. “We stick to what he tells us to do in the ministry – he clarifies – we have always done it and believe me on these things it is really rigorous, they personally check the plants every year and frequently”.
Cortina, therefore, wants to look ahead and anticipate a tourist season that will have to recover the long months of tops due to the pandemic. “We leave on May 29 – he adds Giuliana Boschieri (Marketing Tofana srl) – instead of mid-June thinking of starting the plant on weekends and then going to full capacity from 19 June to 19 September ». Yoga courses, astronomical meetings but also food and wine appointments will also be the outline of the cable car service for the summer of 2021. Instead, it will be necessary to wait until 11 June for the resumption of the other large cableway system in the Ampezzo valley, that of Faloria; and again in the coming weeks the Lagazuoi cable car will reopen, at the Falzergo pass, and in Cortina the Socrepes chairlift which had bravely opened the gates for the stage of the Giro d’Italia. Regarding the Faloria, the company, despite the maintenance had already been carried out, has decided on a surplus of checks, also providing for a further magnetic particle inspection (already done in November) on the ropes of the plant that rises up to 2,100 meters of altitude