Cortina d'Ampezzo or Val Gardena: the town, or the Sella Ronda

Size: Val Gardena, by a distance

Val Gardena's own sector is 175 kilometres, and we measure 145 kilometres of piste around the village, the second most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. Step onto the Sella Ronda and roughly 500 kilometres opens up by lift, no bus needed. That is our estimate rather than an official one, added up from the kilometres we measure across the linked areas, so take it as a round number. Even so, it is more skiing than most people get through in a week.

Around Cortina we measure 86 kilometres, about 60 fewer, and they come in separate pieces: Tofana by the town, Faloria and Cristallo across the valley, and the bus or a car between them. To ski the Sella Ronda from Cortina you drive to it first. The pass is valid there; the lifts from your door do not reach it.

For a group that likes to ski somewhere new every day, that settles it.

Altitude: Val Gardena starts higher, Cortina climbs higher

Val Gardena's village is at 1,563 metres, 339 above Cortina's 1,224. Yet the lowest piste we measure is at almost the same height in both, 1,215 metres at Cortina and 1,218 at Val Gardena. The difference is all at the top.

Both measured tops are lift stations. Cortina's is 3,028 metres, 297 above Val Gardena's 2,731, and on the runs themselves the gap is similar: the highest piste we measure starts at 2,724 metres at Cortina and 2,480 at Val Gardena, 244 metres lower. More of Cortina's skiing sits high, too: 52 percent of its piste is above 2,000 metres, against 39 percent at Val Gardena.

Both count as snow sure on our measure. At Cortina, 67 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, up to the 3,028 metre lift top, with piste to 2,724. At Val Gardena it is 66 percent, up to the 2,731 metre lift top, and the highest piste we measure there stops at 2,480. Nobody can promise snow, and around that 1,800 metre line the two are level. Above it, Cortina has the edge.

The skiing: Cortina is the steeper, whatever the map says

Gradients first, with the usual caution: they are averages per run segment, and a run is graded by its steepest pitch, so they describe how a mountain skis overall rather than any single run. On that measure, Cortina is plainly the more demanding mountain: 25 percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, against 13 percent at Val Gardena, the second smallest share of the 55 resorts we cover. And 40 percent of Val Gardena is gentler than 15 percent, joint fourth of the 55 resorts we cover on that measure.

Who each one actually suits

Val Gardena suits intermediates who want to cover ground, and anyone who has come for the scenery. Our read on it is scenic and traditional, a classic Dolomite valley on the Sella Ronda, with woodcarving among its strengths. The skiing is plentiful, kind and joined up, so a steady group can spend the week making circuits without needing a bus.

Cortina is the pick when you want a town around you. Evenings begin with an aperitivo on the Corso Italia and drift into the passeggiata, and a rifugio lunch can fill an afternoon. Couples are well served, so are families with three ages of skier, and so is anyone bringing a partner who would rather shop than ski. Beginners start on the gentle Socrepes slopes; stronger skiers have Tofana's women's downhill pistes, the steeper blacks and the itinerary.

The bit nobody tells you

Look at the two piste maps and you would call Val Gardena the harder mountain. Sixty percent of its piste is red, against 45 percent at Cortina, and only 29 percent is blue.

The gradients say the opposite. Val Gardena's reds average 17.3 percent, and only two of the 55 resorts we cover have gentler reds. A Val Gardena red sits 2 points above a Cortina blue, at 15.3, and 4.6 points below a Cortina red, at 21.9. In feel, it is closer to Cortina's blue than to Cortina's red. That is why a group of nervous intermediates can be happier in Val Gardena than its map suggests, and why a confident skier may find it short of challenge.