Like Les Gets, but in Italy: the family week, higher, on the Sella Ronda

Alta Badia is gentle Dolomite cruising and world class mountain food, warm and welcoming by our read, with cuisine, the Sella Ronda and families on its list, and we tag it family. It is five Ladin speaking villages, with relaxed evenings rather than late ones.

On the family skiing it goes further than Les Gets. We measure 76 kilometres of blue and easier, the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover and 61 percent of the 124.5 kilometres around the village, against your 55 kilometres and 56 percent. Forty percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, the joint biggest share of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, against your 34, and only 15 percent is steeper than one in four.

It keeps the big playground, too. Alta Badia's own sector is 130 kilometres, and it sits on the Sella Ronda: from a base there, around 500 kilometres is reachable by lift without a bus. That figure is approximate, summed from measured kilometres rather than published, but it is a network on the scale you are used to.

And it adds the height Les Gets lacks. Alta Badia sits at 1,568 metres, 396 above your village, and the skiing reaches 2,509 by our measure, 544 higher. Sixty-five percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 1, so it is snow sure on our measure, narrowly: the top clears our 2,500 metre bar by 9 metres.

The trade is the traditional label and the hard end. We tag Alta Badia family but not traditional, and there are 7.5 kilometres of black against your 9.6, averaging 28.5 percent against your 33.2. You fly to Venice or Innsbruck.

Our matching puts Madonna di Campiglio closest to Les Gets of all the Italian resorts we cover, second only to Adelboden across all 55. It is elegant skiing beneath the Brenta Dolomites, smart and sociable by our read, with style, families and grooming on its list, and a pedestrian centre with aperitivo evenings.

Its area is one linked whole: all three sectors are joined by lift, 155 kilometres in all. Around the village we measure 115 kilometres, with 54 of blue and easier, 47 percent of the piste. It skis a little gentler than Les Gets: 36 percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, against your 34, only 18 percent is steeper than one in four, and the blues average 12.9 percent; only five of the 55 resorts we cover have gentler ones. For the strongest in the family there is more black, 17.3 kilometres against your 9.6.

The village sits at 1,550 metres, 378 above yours, and the skiing reaches 2,496 by our measure, 531 higher, with 61 percent of the piste at or above 1,800 metres. The trade is the village's character: we tag Madonna upmarket and family, not traditional. You fly to Verona or Milan.

Val Gardena is the one pick that keeps your traditional label: a classic Dolomite valley on the Sella Ronda, scenic and traditional by our read, with the Sella Ronda, the scenery and woodcarving on its list. It shares the Sella Ronda with Alta Badia, so between those two the choice is which valley to wake up in. Its own sector is 175 kilometres, and we measure 145 around the village, the second most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover.

Underfoot it is the kindest of the three. Only 13 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, the smallest share of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, and 40 percent is gentler than 15 percent. Sixty percent of it is red, but the reds average 17.3 percent, the gentlest of the 10 Italian resorts we cover and well under your 23.2.

The height needs a note. The village is at 1,563 metres, 391 above yours, and 66 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres. The 2,731 metres in the table is a lift top; the highest piste we measure is at 2,480, so Val Gardena is snow sure on our measure only on that lift top. The trade is the family label and the blue: we do not tag it family, and there are 42 kilometres of blue and easier, 29 percent of the piste. You fly to Innsbruck or Verona.