Premise or better admission of guilt: we wanted to publish at least one interview to our cable car employees per week, but the Christmas Holydays have really demanded us a huge effort and not to eat pandoro and panettone as you are thinking…
Anyway, we felt guilty,
so we decided to remedy to our fault presenting you a very emoltional interview, the tale of a lifetime spent on the Marmolada, or better at the foot of the Marmolada: Orsola’s story.
Maybe there will be among you some people who use to come every year on the Marmolada and to whom Orsola may seem a family member, because she began already 50 years ago to sell tickets in the valley station. She sold really a great amount of tickets and really to everyone, from the humble worker to a ski star like Alberto Tomba, from a well-known writer like Dino Buzzati to a journalist like Indro Montanelli or to a worlwide known actor like Sylvester Stallone. However, the most important person, who visited Orsola in her ticket office is Pope John Paul II in 1979.
We interviewed Orsola during a break and here you will read some anecdotes, which she kindly told us, after that we insisted, because if you really know her, you will be aware of the fact that she doesn’t love to be put in the spotlight.
Enjoy the read!
- How did you begin to work for this cable car?
The cable car had just been built and they were looking for a person, who should take care of the ticket office.
- What do you do in your job?
I take care of the ticket office, of the accounting, of the management of orders and suppliers.
- What do you like in your job?
To be everyday in contact with other people.
- Is there an episode about tourists that you remember more than others and which is still making you laugh and that you would write in a book?
A book is not enough, there are way too many funny episodes among which to choose one in 50 years.
- You have been here for 50 years, which is your favourite or most meaningful moment of your story here?
It’s difficult to choose just one of them, but maybe the moment that moved me more is the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1979.
- How did you feel meeting the Pope?
Emotional. He asked me “Why are you not giving to me too a ticket?” Luckily, I was able to think immediately about the perfect answer: “Because You don’t need it”.
- How is your typical day here?
I arrive before 8 o’clock, I help the employees of the restaurant to charge into the cabin all the necessary for the bar and for cooking, then I open the ticket office and at the same time I manage the relations with our suppliers, due to the fact that I’m working in the ticket office, but also directly for the director of the cable car. In the evening, I do the accounting.
- In your opinion, which is the strength and the weakness of the cable car?
Certainly, its strength is the fact that the Marmolada is known worldwide, while I think that the lack of public means of transports from and to the main touristic destinations of the surroundings is its weakness.
- Is there something that you would like to change of the cable car for its 50 years?
I think that it is already functional like that… But maybe, I will build a bar in Punta Rocca station.
- Why is the Marmolada a so special mountain, beyond the fact that it is Dolomites highest peak?
The unique landscape that it offers to its guests.
- Why did you decided to work for the same enterprise for so long?
I was able to build a strong bond with the direction, particularly with Dr. Vascellari (Bruno ndr).
Short and brief answers the ones that our Orsola gave us, but this is a gift that we think she might have discovered to be essential for her long lasting job at the front desk, particularly to avoid the creation of long jams. However, she was always ready to give to thousands or maybe millions of tourists complete and kind answers.
These are small fragments of life, which Orsola gave us as a gift in this interview. In reality, every day she tell us something about her 50 years working for the cable car. She is in fact the only one still working there, who saw the cable car to grow and develop through three generations of the Vascellari family. Her biography might not sell as Manzoni’s “Promessi Sposi”, but he believed too that he would have had just 25 readers, and we are sure that Orsola too will have some more readers than just 25. Why don’t you think about it, Orsola?
We want to close this post saying a massive thank you to our Orsola for her smile, which has been welcoming tourists for 50 years yet.
Your team of cable car storytellers.
