Like St Anton, but in Italy: the closest is high, big and quieter

Sestriere suits the St Anton regular who wants a big week on a big mountain. We measure 160 kilometres of piste around the village, a little more than St Anton's 155 and the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. It also has the most black of them, 17.9 kilometres, and the most marked itinerary, 10.8. Thirty percent of the piste is steeper than one in four.

Then it adds height. The village is at 2,035 metres, 731 above St Anton's and the fourth highest of the 55 resorts we cover, and it is snow sure on our measure with room to spare: 91 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres. The top of the skiing, 2,788 metres by our measure, is all but level with St Anton's.

Know what the area figure means. The Via Lattea is sold at 400 kilometres, but that includes Montgenèvre in France, which needs the International pass. On the standard pass you ski the Italian lifts, roughly 305 kilometres by our own subtraction, because no source publishes an Italy-only figure.

What you give up is the edge and the evenings. The itinerary is less than a sixth of St Anton's, the reds average 21.1 percent against 25.8, and the blues 12.0 percent, the second gentlest of the 55 we cover. That is good news for anyone in your group who is not an expert, and less good for you. Our read on Sestriere is high and practical, a purpose built resort known for snow, size and value. It is not a party.

If what you love is the steepest groomed runs, Bormio surprises. Its blacks average 35.7 percent, steeper than St Anton's 34.1: the sixth steepest of the 55 resorts we cover, and second of the ten in Italy. Thirty-two percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, the joint third biggest share of those ten. It is known for long runs and racing, and the piste we measure runs from 1,196 metres all the way up to 3,001. It is snow sure on our measure: 76 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres.

The catch is the size of it. Bormio's own mountain is 50 kilometres, and we measure 52.5 around the town, among the five smallest of the 55 resorts we cover. The other three valleys on its pass need transport. There are only 4.7 kilometres of black, 4 of marked itinerary, and 12.1 kilometres of blue and easier, the least of the 55 we cover, so bring a group that is happy on red. Our read on it is historic and relaxed, a spa town with thermal baths, traditional and quiet. It is a few days of steep, long descents, not a St Anton week.

Our matching puts Cortina nearest to St Anton of the Italian resorts we cover, and what carries over is the shape of the place. The town sits at 1,224 metres, near St Anton's 1,304, and its lifts go higher: the top of the lifts is 3,028 metres by our measure, 229 above St Anton's top and the second highest of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. The highest piste we measure there is 2,724 metres, though, 75 below St Anton's, so on the runs themselves it is St Anton that goes higher. There are 9.2 kilometres of marked itinerary, also second of the ten, and the blacks average 32.5 percent, not far off St Anton's 34.1. It is snow sure on our measure, with 67 percent of the piste we measure above 1,800 metres.

It is a real town, too, with a pedestrian main street and a life beyond the lifts. But the evenings are a different animal. Cortina is stylish and upmarket by our read, and its nights are built around the aperitivo, not around skiing home past the bars.

The skiing is smaller and kinder. We measure 85.5 kilometres of piste, and 25 percent of it is steeper than one in four, against 43. Its areas, Tofana, Faloria and Cristallo, are separate, so you move between them by bus or car. Cortina is the pick for a St Anton couple who have started to prefer the long lunch to the late night.