Like Samoëns, but in Italy: the gentle mountain, lifted into the Dolomites

Alta Badia is gentle Dolomite cruising with world class mountain food, warm and welcoming by our read, with families on its list beside the cuisine and the Sellaronda. It keeps your family label. Our guide adds what the tags do not: five Ladin speaking villages with an old culture of their own, and evenings that run to a long dinner rather than a late night.

The mountain is as gentle as yours. Forty percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, the same joint fourth place of the 55 resorts we cover, and only 15 percent is steeper than one in four, against your 19. The blues average 14.4 percent against your 16.6; the reds, at 21.7, run a little steeper than your 19.9. And the easy ground goes on: 76 kilometres of blue and easier, the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, against your 48 of green and blue.

The height is where it moves. The village sits 848 metres above yours and the skiing tops out at 2,509 metres by our measurement, 137 higher. Sixty five percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 18, so Alta Badia is snow sure on our measure, if only just at the top.

We measure 124.5 kilometres around the village, 35 more than around Samoëns. Alta Badia's own sector is 130, and from a base on the Sellaronda around 500 can be reached by lift, an approximate sum rather than a published figure. The 1,200 on the Dolomiti Superski pass covers twelve areas, only four of them joined. The trade is the traditional and quiet tags and value, none of which we give Alta Badia. You fly to Venice or Innsbruck.

Val Gardena is a classic Dolomite valley on the Sella Ronda, scenic and traditional by our read, with scenery and woodcarving on its list. It keeps your traditional label, and it is the gentlest of the three. Forty percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, level with yours, and 13 percent is steeper than one in four, the second smallest share of the 55 resorts we cover. The reds average 17.3 percent and the blues 12.8, both gentler than yours.

Read its map with that in mind. Most of the piste is graded red, 86.5 kilometres, against 42 of blue and easier, so the colours make it look harder than it measures.

The height comes with a caveat. The village is 843 metres above yours and 66 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres. The lifts reach 2,731 metres, but the highest piste we measure is at 2,480, 108 above your top, so the snow sure call rests on the top of the lifts rather than the piste. We measure 145 kilometres around the valley, with 16.4 of black. The trade is the quiet and the family label, which we do not give it. You fly to Innsbruck or Verona.

Our matching puts Cortina closest to Samoëns of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, and the one thing it carries over is size: we measure 85.5 kilometres around the village, against your 89.5. It also has the one run we measure here longer than your Cascades, a red of 6.9 kilometres with 1,000 metres of drop, and 9.2 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary, the second most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover.

Everything else changes. Cortina is stylish and scenic, Dolomite drama and Italian style and host of the 2026 Games, and we tag it upmarket, not traditional, quiet or family. It is steeper than you are used to: 25 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 19. The village is 504 metres above yours, the lifts reach 3,028 metres and the highest piste we measure is at 2,724; 67 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, so it is snow sure on our measure, on the piste top as well as the lifts. You fly to Venice or Innsbruck.