Like Laax, but in Italy: the gentle mountain, with lunch

If it is the kind piste you love, Alta Badia is Laax's mountain with a long Italian lunch. We measure 124.5 kilometres of piste around it, against 124.3 around Laax, near enough level. The blues average 14.4 percent at both. Fifteen percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against your 14, and 40 percent is gentler than 15 percent, the joint biggest share of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, against 37. And there is more easy ground: 76.4 kilometres of blue and easier, the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, against your 57.4.

It also reaches further. Alta Badia's own sector is 130 kilometres, and from a base on the Sella Ronda around 500 kilometres is reachable by lift, an approximate figure summed from measured kilometres, not one the pass publishes. Our read is warm and welcoming, gentle Dolomite cruising and world class mountain food, across five Ladin speaking villages, best for cuisine, the Sella Ronda and families.

What you give up is the height, the off piste and the mood. The village is higher, at 1,568 metres, but the skiing stops at 2,509 by our measure, 459 below Laax's top. Sixty five percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 72, and the top only just clears the 2,500 our snow sure test asks for, so it passes, narrowly. There are 0.6 kilometres of marked itinerary against 27.7, and we class Alta Badia family, not upmarket or modern. Fly to Venice or Innsbruck.

Cortina d'Ampezzo is the resort our matching sets nearest to Laax of all 55 we cover, and the one Italian pick that keeps the upmarket label. Its share of gentle piste, 36 percent, sits a point under yours, and the village is at 1,224 metres, 124 above Laax. Our read is stylish and scenic, best for the Dolomites, style and long lunches, a host of the 2026 Games and a real town, with the Corso Italia at its heart.

It has the most marked itinerary of the three picks, 9.2 kilometres, the second most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, against 27.7. The lifts reach 3,028 metres, but that is the top of a lift; the highest piste we measure starts at 2,724, 241 below the highest at Laax. Sixty seven percent is at or above 1,800 metres, and the piste top alone keeps it snow sure on our measure.

The trade is the gradient and the size. Twenty five percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 14, and the blacks average 32.5 percent against your 25.5, the reds 21.9 against 19.5. We measure 86 kilometres around the town, about 39 fewer than around Laax; Cortina is quoted at 120, a figure we have not checked, and its areas come in pieces with a bus between them. Fly to Venice or Innsbruck.

On most of our measures Val Gardena is gentler than Laax. Thirteen percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, against your 14, and only one of the 55 resorts we cover has a smaller share. The reds average 17.3 percent, the gentlest of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, against 19.5, and the blues 12.8 against 14.4; only the blacks, at 26.1, are a shade steeper. We measure 145 kilometres around the valley, about 21 more than around Laax, and it links to Alta Badia on the Sella Ronda.

The gentleness lives in the reds, though. More than half of the piste is red, and there are 42.4 kilometres of blue and easier against your 57.4. The snow needs a closer look too: the lifts reach 2,731 metres, but the highest piste we measure is at 2,480, below the 2,500 our snow sure test asks for, so it passes only on that lift top. Sixty six percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres. There are 2.6 kilometres of itinerary, and our read is scenic and traditional, a classic Dolomite valley known for scenery and woodcarving. Fly to Innsbruck or Verona.