Like SkiWelt, but in Italy: choose the tradition or the families

Our matching puts Val Gardena nearest to the SkiWelt of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, and the trait it carries over is the traditional one. Our read on it is scenic and traditional, our one line a classic Dolomite valley on the Sella Ronda, and the Sella Ronda, scenery and woodcarving are the three things on its list.

It is the pick with the most room. We measure 145 kilometres of piste around the valley, the second most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, though 113 fewer than around the SkiWelt. Its own sector is 175 kilometres, and from a base on the Sella Ronda around 500 kilometres is reachable by lift without a bus. That figure is a sum of measured kilometres across the linked areas, not a published one, so treat it as approximate. The 1,200 kilometres you will see quoted is the Dolomiti Superski pass, across twelve areas of which only four are joined.

And it is gentler than home. Only 13 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, the second smallest share of the 55 resorts we cover, and 40 percent is gentler than 15 percent, the joint fourth biggest share of the 55 we cover. The reds average 17.3 percent, the third gentlest of the 55 resorts we cover, nearer your blues at 15.6 than your reds at 22.0.

That matters, because the map reads differently. Sixty percent of the piste is red, and only 42 kilometres is blue and easier, against your 133. A SkiWelt family reading the piste map will see a red mountain; on the gradient those reds are kinder than yours.

What you give up is the family tag and the value. We class Val Gardena as traditional only, and families are not on its list. Alta Badia shares its lift pass.

It is also far higher. The village is at 1,563 metres, 943 above yours, and 66 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres. On our measure that makes it snow sure, but only because its 2,731 metre lift top clears the height our test asks for; the highest piste we measure tops out at 2,480. You fly to Innsbruck or Verona, and Innsbruck is one of your airports already.

Madonna di Campiglio keeps the other half. We class it as upmarket and family, families are on its list with style and grooming, and our read is smart and sociable. Our one line is elegant skiing beneath the Brenta Dolomites. Our guide puts the grooming first, and adds a pedestrian main street and well run ski schools used to guests from abroad.

It is kinder underfoot than home, too. Eighteen percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against your 24, and 36 percent is gentler than 15 percent, against 34. The blues average 12.9 percent and the reds 19.7, against your 15.6 and 22.0. There are 54 kilometres of blue and easier, the second most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, and 17.3 of black, also the second most.

The area is easy to describe: 155 kilometres across three sectors, all joined by lift. Around Madonna we measure 115 kilometres of piste, 143 fewer than around the SkiWelt, and there is no marked itinerary in our data, against your 10.8.

The trade is the tone and the tradition. Madonna is upmarket by our read, value is not on its list, and our matching marks traditional as the SkiWelt trait that does not carry over. The village is at 1,550 metres, 930 above yours, and the skiing reaches 2,496 by our measure, 538 higher. Sixty-one percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres. That top sits within a few metres of the line our snow sure test draws, so we give you the figures rather than a label.

Cortina d'Ampezzo is the other resort our matching suggests, second after Val Gardena, and on paper its mix is the closest to yours: 25 percent of the piste steeper than one in four, 36 percent gentler than 15, and 9.2 kilometres of marked itinerary, against 10.8 at the SkiWelt. But we class it as upmarket, neither traditional nor family, and we measure 86 kilometres around it. A stylish Dolomite week, not a SkiWelt one.