Love Cervinia? Where to go next for the height, the gentle reds or the Italian week

Tignes is the closest match to Cervinia we measure, anywhere. It is high, snow sure and built for skiing, practical by our read, which will feel familiar. The village sits at 2,100 metres, the second highest of the 55 resorts we cover and 50 above yours. Ninety seven percent of its piste is above 1,800 metres, against your 99, and the skiing reaches 3,449 metres, measured. The season runs from late November to early May.

The size is simpler. Espace Killy, shared with Val d'Isère, is 300 kilometres on one pass, with no border crossing and no second pass to buy.

The trade is the gradient, and it is real. Twenty five percent of Tignes's piste is steeper than one in four, against your 15, and its reds average 23.1 percent against your 18.1. But here is the useful part: Tignes's blues average 17.6 percent, much the same as a Cervinia red. A Cervinia cruiser who sticks to the blues in Tignes is on a familiar gradient, and there are 76 kilometres of green and blue to do it on, three times your 24. Anyone who wants more has 21 kilometres of black, and 14 of marked off piste itinerary against your 8.

What you give up is Italy: the sunny terraces, the lunch, and the feeling that Zermatt is just over the hill.

If the best thing about Cervinia is the long, easy red you can ski on autopilot, Klosters is the closest thing we have found to it, and the numbers line up in a way that is almost funny. Fifteen percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, exactly your share. Its reds average 17.1 percent, the gentlest of the 55 resorts we cover, and its blacks are the gentlest of the 55 too. It is a red heavy map with gentle reds, like yours, and 24 kilometres of blue and easier, like yours. Its longest run is a 4.7 kilometre red that drops 740 metres; your Matterhorn run is 5.3 kilometres and drops 741.

It is snow sure on our test, too: 69 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, and the skiing reaches 2,808 metres, measured.

The trade is the height and the simplicity. The village is at 1,191 metres, 859 below yours, so the snow line is a long way from Cervinia's 99 percent. And the ski area is not one tidy block. Klosters reaches Parsenn, which it shares with Davos, by cable car, and otherwise has Madrisa; the other mountains on the Davos Klosters pass need a train, bus or car. Around the village we measure 97 kilometres, against your 116.

The mood changes too. Klosters is discreet and pretty, upmarket, quiet and good with families by our read, which is a different evening from a Cervinia aperitivo.

If what you would miss is Italy, the lunches and the pace of the place, stay in the country and go to the Dolomites. Val Gardena is a classic Dolomite valley on the Sella Ronda, scenic and traditional by our read, with woodcarving on its list of what it does best, which tells you the kind of village it is.

The skiing travels well. Only 13 percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, and only one of the 55 resorts we cover has a smaller share. Its reds average 17.3 percent against your 18.1, and like Cervinia it is mostly red on the map, with 42 kilometres of blue and easier against your 24.

It is bigger, without a border. Val Gardena's own sector is 175 kilometres and we measure 145 around the village, against your 116. From a base on the Sellaronda, around 500 kilometres is reachable by lift, though that is our own approximate sum and not a number Dolomiti Superski publishes. The 1,200 kilometres printed on the Dolomiti Superski pass covers twelve areas, and only four of them join up.

The trade is altitude, and it is the one that matters most to a Cervinia regular. The village is at 1,563 metres, 487 below yours. It passes our snow sure test on the height of its lifts: 66 percent of the piste is above 1,800 metres and the top of the lifts is 2,731 metres. The highest piste we measure stops at 2,480, just under the 2,500 our test asks for. Either way that is a long way from your 99 percent, and the season runs December to April rather than late November to May.