The son of Luigi Gasparotto and Maria Biglia, he was born in Milan into a Friulian family of progressive ideas; before the advent of Fascism his father had been deputy and minister in the Bonomi I Cabinet with the Italian Democratic Social Party.

[5][6][7][8][9] In 1933 he made the first solo ascent of the east side of Mont Blanc, and in 1934 he explored and climbed in Greenland, discovering the Milano and Roma glaciers and the Savoia peninsula, which he christened with their names.

After the fall of Fascism on 25 July 1943, Gasparotto (who had joined the underground Justice and Freedom movement in the 1930s and the Action Party in 1942[13][14]), along with his father and other Milanese anti-fascists including Alfredo Pizzoni, who acted as spokesman, founded an "Inter-Party Committee" that asked General Vittorio Ruggero, commander of the territorial defense of Milan, to organize the defence of the city against the Germans and to provide weapons to the anti-fascists, offering to fight the Nazis alongside the soldiers.

[21][22][23][24] General Ruggero, however, was eventually persuaded not to take any action against the Germans, and instead forbade civilians from using weapons, under penalty of death, and banned public gatherings.

On 10 September, he informed the members of the National Liberation Committee that his troops would not interfere with the German occupation of the city, which indeed occurred on the following day almost without a shot fired.