Thanks to Pierpaolo and Davide, today Alpe Cantedoldo is a mountain refuge with a terrace overlooking the valleys, trails leading to it, and traditional dishes created by the initiative of a father and son who wanted to promote areas that had been neglected for too long.
Cover photo for illustrative purposes only
Photos in the article taken from Facebook
The news
At an altitude of 1,500 meters, nestled in the Bergamo Orobie Alps, stands Alpe Cantedoldo, an old dairy farm forgotten in the mountains of Averara, which, thanks to a father and son, has now been brought back to life for five years. Pierpaolo Ronzoni and his son Davide decided to take a chance on a shared dream: to transform an abandoned place into a destination for hikers, travelers, and mountain lovers. This decision led Davide, at just 21 years old, to leave his factory job to devote himself body and soul to the craft of running a mountain refuge.
A choice that has paid off: Regione Lombardia has just awarded Alpe Cantedoldo €293,000 for an expansion project that will make the facility even more welcoming. The funding is included in the Bando Rifugi 2024 (2024 Mountain Refuges Call for Proposals), designed to enhance mountain areas and their usability. “We ‘invented’ the refuge. Before we arrived, it was abandoned, and we gave it an identity and life, both to the refuge itself and to all the trails surrounding it. We are now in our fifth year, a difficult year because the weather is always bad, with July being the coldest ever and very few people,” Pierpaolo tells La Voce delle Valli.
Thanks to Pierpaolo and Davide, today Alpe Cantedoldo is a mountain refuge with a terrace overlooking the valleys, trails to reach it, and traditional dishes born from the initiative of a father and son with the desire to enhance areas that had been neglected for too long. The funding received by the Ronzoni family is part of an initiative by Massimo Sertori, councilor for local authorities and mountains, who proposed an increase of €5 million, with Fosmit (Fund for the Development of Italian Mountains) funds from the 2024 Refugees Call for Proposals.
"This is actually a doubling of resources for a measure that received a record number of applications during the call for proposals (July 10, 2024 – November 29, 2024) with a record number of 115 applications, of which 108 were approved, for a total validated contribution of €17.20 million with 23 projects immediately funded and one recipient of partial resources. I remain committed to ensuring that the mountain areas of Lombardy have everything they need. The mountains and their system are proving to be proactive and ready to develop projects that promote their usability and attractiveness. The actions we are funding contribute to improving the Lombardy mountains, making them increasingly a flagship for our region, also with a view to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, explained the Councilor.
