Like Lech, but in Italy: the polish, the snow or the steep?

Of the three, Madonna di Campiglio is the one that keeps both things we class Lech by: it is upmarket, and it is a family resort. Our read on it is smart and sociable, with style, families and grooming at the top of its list, and the village sits beneath the Brenta Dolomites at 1,550 metres, 100 above Lech. Its three sectors are joined by lift into one area of 155 kilometres, so the whole family can ski it as one mountain, as they do at home in the Arlberg.

On snow the two are level by our measure. At both, 61 percent of the piste sits above 1,800 metres, and the skiing tops out 56 metres apart: 2,496 at Madonna, 2,440 at Lech. Neither quite reaches 2,500 metres, so whatever you have learned to expect of the snow in Lech, expect the same here.

The gap is underfoot. Only 18 percent of Madonna's piste is steeper than one in four, against Lech's 33, and its blues average 12.9 percent against 17.0. We measure 115 kilometres around the village, about two thirds of Lech's, with 17 of black against 26 and no marked off piste itinerary in our data at all. What it does have is easy skiing in quantity: 54 kilometres of blue and easier, the second most of the Italian resorts we cover. For a family of cruisers that is a fair swap. For the one in the group who spends the week on the itineraries, it is not.

Our matching puts Cortina nearer to Lech than any other Italian resort we cover, on the strength of two things: the top of the mountain and the money. It is stylish and scenic by our read, an upmarket old town under the Dolomites with a pedestrian main street and an evening stroll before dinner, host of the Winter Olympics in 1956 and of the 2026 Games. Long lunches are on its list for a reason.

The surprise is the snow. Cortina's town sits at 1,224 metres, 226 below Lech, yet its lifts reach 3,028 metres by our measure, 588 above Lech's top and the second highest of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. That is a lift top, above the highest piste we measure, at 2,724 metres, but even the piste clears the line Lech sits just under, and Cortina is snow sure on our measure: 67 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres. You sleep lower and ski higher.

The trade is the joined up mountain. Cortina's own sectors are not all linked, so a bus or a car is part of the day, and the Dolomiti Superski pass it sits on is a pass across twelve areas, only four of them joined by lift, not one ski area. Around the town we measure 85.5 kilometres of piste, under half of Lech's, with 9 kilometres of black against 26. The blacks are serious when you find them, averaging 32.5 percent against Lech's 30.8, but there are not many. Cortina suits a couple or a group who go for the scenery and the table as much as the skiing. A family that wants everyone on one linked mountain is better off in Madonna.

If what keeps you going back to Lech is the skiing itself, Sestriere is the one of the three whose mountain measures most like it. We measure 160 kilometres of piste around the village, the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover and not far short of Lech's 175. Thirty percent is steeper than one in four, against 33, and 35 percent is gentler than 15 percent, against 31. It also has the most black of any Italian resort we cover, 18 kilometres, and the most marked itinerary, 10.8 kilometres. That is a fraction of Lech's 56, and still the most of any Italian resort we cover.

Then there is the snow. The village sits at 2,035 metres, the fourth highest of the 55 resorts we cover and 585 above Lech, and it is snow sure on our measure with room to spare: 91 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,788 metres. It sits on the Via Lattea, the Milky Way, where the standard pass covers the Italian lifts only, roughly 305 kilometres by our own subtraction. The 400 kilometres you will see quoted includes Montgenèvre in France, which needs the International pass.

What you give up is everything Lech is known for off the snow. Sestriere is purpose built, modern and practical by our read, with neither the upmarket nor the family tag. More than half of its piste is red, and its blues average 12.0 percent, the second gentlest of the 55 resorts we cover. So the easy skiing is very easy, and the main course is red.