Recoaro Mille
A resort in the Piccole Dolomiti built around its lifts and named after them, whose ski installations vanished in 2016 and whose gondola has stood idle since 2017; in 2025 the commune resolved to scrap it for good.
- Region
- Veneto
- Country
- Italy
- Status
- closed
- Year opened
- 1950s
- Year closed
- 2016
- Reason for closure
- Snow stopped falling dependably at that altitude, and two successive operating companies went bankrupt, which made a new operator impossible to find. The ski installations disappeared from the mountain in 2016 and the gondola was taken out of service in 2017.
History
Recoaro Mille is a hamlet of Recoaro Terme in the province of Vicenza, in the Piccole Dolomiti, and it exists because of skiing: a scheme in the 1930s proposed a cable car from the spa town of Recoaro Terme up to Pizzegoro, where a hotel centre at a thousand metres was to be built and named Recoaro Mille. The first lift, a cable installation with single seats, went up in the 1950s; a gondola replaced the original line in 1995, and in the winter of 2008 a two-seat chairlift to Monte Falcone took over from a single-seater by then close to forty years old. The altitude was always the weakness, and as the local press put it, at those heights it no longer snows, or snows far less. Two operating companies failed in succession, which made finding a new one impossible. The ski installations went from the mountain in 2016 and the gondola was switched off in 2017; after years of talk about restoring it, the decision was taken in 2025 to dismantle it permanently. The Monte Falcone chairlift survives as a summer lift and the commune has committed to slow tourism instead of skiing - one refuge keeper quoted afterwards said the mountain had been given back to the people who really care about it. Piste names are not compiled in accessible sources.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Gondola | Built in 1995 to replace the original lift line from the valley. Out of service since 2017 and never restarted; in 2025 the decision was taken to dismantle it permanently | |
| Monte Falcone | Chairlift - Double | Opened in the winter of 2008, replacing a single-seater then approaching 40 years old. It now runs as a summer lift | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Single | The original lift, a cable installation with single seats built in the 1950s; later dismantled and eventually replaced by the Monte Falcone double in 2008 |
Sources and further reading
- https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recoaro_Mille
- https://www.ildolomiti.it/altra-montagna/attualita/2025/verra-dismessa-definitivamente-la-cabinovia-di-recoaro-abbandonata-lipotesi-di-ripristino-una-volta-era-una-zona-sciistica-ma-a-quelle-quote-non-nevica-piu
- https://www.mattinopadova.it/regione/recoaro-scommette-sul-turismo-slow-addio-sci-la-seggiovia-funzionera-destate-ofil5ra7
- https://www.dovesciare.it/news/2020-09-24/lo-sci-che-fu-lelenco-di-tutte-le-311-stazioni-sciistiche-fantasma
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Location
45.6800, 11.2228