Love Cortina d'Ampezzo? Where to go next for the style, the whole week or the old town

If Cortina for you is Italian polish under pale Dolomite walls, stay in Italy and go west to the Brenta Dolomites. Madonna di Campiglio is smart and sociable, and style is on the list of what it does best, as it is at Cortina. We class both as upmarket.

The difference is how the skiing fits together. Madonna's three sectors are all joined by lift into one domain of 155 kilometres, so the bus you plan around at Cortina drops out of the week. Around the village itself we measure 115 kilometres, against Cortina's 86, and it is gentler: 18 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 25, and the blues average 12.9 percent against 15.3. For a family on the easy runs, that is a real difference. There is more at the hard end too, with 17 kilometres of black against Cortina's 9.

The trade is height at the top. The village is higher, at 1,550 metres, 326 above Cortina's, but the skiing tops out at 2,496, measured, which is 532 metres below the top of Cortina's lifts at 3,028, and 228 below the highest piste we measure there. Most of the skiing still sits at a similar height: 61 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against Cortina's 67. And there is no marked off piste itinerary, where Cortina has 9 kilometres.

Crans-Montana is the closest match to Cortina we measure, anywhere. It is sunny and smart, on a plateau with wide views over the Rhône, and golf and spa sit alongside the skiing on its list of strengths. On the ground it is almost exactly the same size: we measure 85 kilometres of piste around it, against Cortina's 86.

What changes is that all of it joins up, and more of it sits high. Crans-Montana is a single linked area of 140 kilometres, a figure three independent sources agree on to the kilometre. The village is at 1,500 metres, 276 above Cortina's, and 79 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against Cortina's 67, though its skiing tops out at 2,868, measured: below the top of Cortina's lifts, but above the highest piste we measure there. It is snow sure on our test.

The trade is the colour of the piste, and the setting. There are only 22 kilometres of blue and easier, against Cortina's 38, and most of the mountain is red. But these reds measure gentle, averaging 19.2 percent against Cortina's 21.9, and 22 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 25. Swiss and Italian grades do not line up, so trust the measured share over the label. You also give up the Dolomites, and some of the polish: we class Crans-Montana as a family resort rather than an upmarket one.

If what you love is being in a real old Italian town, with history in the streets, Bormio is the nearest thing in our data. It is a historic spa town with thermal baths and a famous top to bottom run, and like Cortina it knows its racing. Its village sits at 1,225 metres, one metre above Cortina's. Its skiing goes up to 3,001 metres, measured, and 76 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, so it is snow sure on our test.

The trade is the size, and the easy skiing. Bormio's own mountain is 50 kilometres, with the rest of its pass in separate valleys, and we measure 52.5 kilometres of piste around the town against Cortina's 86. There are 12 kilometres of blue and easier, the least of the 55 resorts we cover, and more than two thirds of the mountain is red. The reds themselves are much like Cortina's, averaging 21.7 percent against 21.9, but 32 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 25. A beginner will run out of easy runs quickly. Two confident skiers who care more about the town than the piste map will not.

We class Bormio as traditional and quiet rather than upmarket: the old town, without quite so much of the polish.