Twenty years ago the only way to get from Ritten to Bolzano was in your car or on the bus. Â The road is very twisted and has too many switch-backs to count. Â So in the ninties they built a wonderful cable car aka an all-season gondola to take people up and down the mountain. Â It's smooth, easy, and fast. Â It only take 12 minutes to reach the city. Â
We live in Klobenstein (within Ritten) so we love the cable car.  We drive 5 minutes to Oberbozen (within Ritten), park the car, and take the cable car down to Bolzano.  In 2011 the price was 3,50 Euro round-trip for adults and free if you were staying at a local hotel and in possession of a RittenCard.  Now in 2012 they have increased the price.  Instead of 3,50 Euro it's 10,00 Euro.  The price has more than doubled!  When I was trying to buy my ticket last time I thought the machine was broken because the price was so much higher. Â