Like La Clusaz, but in Italy: the family week, higher up

Our read is smart and sociable, elegant skiing beneath the Brenta Dolomites, with style, families and grooming on its list. Our guide adds a pedestrian centre, ski schools used to international guests and evenings built around the aperitivo rather than a party. Sociable, then, rather than lively, but a family resort too.

The easy skiing travels well. There are 54 kilometres of blue and easier, the second most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, against your 56 of green and blue, though green is not reliably tagged there. The blues are gentler still, averaging 12.9 percent against 14.6, and 36 percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 38.

Then the height. The village is at 1,550 metres, 450 above yours, and 61 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, against 18. The middle of the skiing, our median piste height, is 1,882 metres, 354 above La Clusaz's. The top, 2,496 metres by our measure, is only 38 above yours and within a few metres of the 2,500 metre line in our snow sure test, close enough that we leave that call open.

It is bigger, too, and joined up. The area is 155 kilometres across three sectors, all linked by lift, and we measure 115 kilometres around the village against your 97.

The trade is the bite. Only 18 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 39, and the reds average 19.7 percent against your 29.0. There is more black, 17.3 kilometres, the second most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, but it averages 30.2 percent, a typical Italian black. It is upmarket rather than traditional, and you fly to Verona or Milan.

Of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, our matching puts Cortina closest to La Clusaz. Our read is stylish and scenic, and we tag it upmarket. Our guide is closer to what you love about home: a historic Italian town, not one built for skiing, with a pedestrian main street and Italian families who have come back each winter for generations.

The skiing is the in between kind. Thirty six percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 38, and 25 percent steeper than one in four, against 39, with reds averaging 21.9 percent. There are 38 kilometres of blue and easier, against your 56. And there are 9.2 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary, the second most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, where La Clusaz has none in our data.

It is snow sure on our measure: 67 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres. The lifts reach 3,028 metres, but the highest piste we measure starts at 2,724, which is still 266 above your top.

What you give up is size and simplicity. We measure 86 kilometres around the town, against 97. Cortina sits on Dolomiti Superski, a pass across twelve areas of which only four are joined by lift, and our guide says its own areas are not all linked, so the bus or a car is part of the day. You fly to Venice or Innsbruck.

Bormio is historic and relaxed by our read, a spa town with a famous top to bottom run, and long runs, the thermal spa and racing are on its list. We tag it traditional and quiet, so the tradition carries over and the buzz does not.

On the steep end it is the nearest of the three. Thirty two percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against your 39. The blacks average 35.7 percent, the sixth steepest of the 55 resorts we cover, against your 37.3. The blues average 14.6 percent, the same figure as yours. And it is snow sure on our measure: 76 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, up to 3,001 metres, 543 above La Clusaz's top. The village is at 1,225 metres, 125 higher.

The trade is the family side. We measure 52.5 kilometres around the village, the fourth smallest of the 55 resorts we cover; its own mountain is 50 kilometres, and the pass covers four separate valleys, with everything beyond the home mountain needing transport. There are 12 kilometres of blue and easier, the least of the 55 we cover. Families are not on its list, and you fly to Bergamo or Milan.