Like St Moritz, but in Italy: the style is easy, the height is not
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20266 min read
Italy is the obvious place to look for another St Moritz. It has the style, the long lunches and the sense that a ski week is a holiday first. What it is harder to find there is the rest of the St Moritz package: a town at 1,822 metres, the highest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, skiing to 3,266 metres by our measure, and 97 percent of the piste we measure above 1,800 metres, which makes it snow sure on our measure with room to spare.
It helps to know what the skiing is, too. St Moritz skis as separate mountains, and the 350 kilometres quoted is a pass across them. Around the town we measure 106 kilometres, mostly red, with 30 kilometres of blue and easier and 16 of black. The draw is as much off the snow: the lake and its winter events, the grand hotels, the Cresta Run.
The honest headline: two of our three Italian picks are upmarket, and all three take lunch as seriously as you do. None has St Moritz's height. The highest top among them, a lift top at Cortina, is 238 metres short of yours, the highest village is 254 metres lower, and the snow sure margin shrinks with them.
| Resort | Village | Top of the skiing, measured | Ski area | Piste we measure around the village | Steeper than one in four | Piste at or above 1,800 m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your benchmarkSt. Moritz | 1,822 m | 3,266 m | Separate mountains. The 350 km quoted is a pass figure | 106 km | 24% | 97% |
| Cortina d'Ampezzo | 1,224 m | 3,028 m, a lift top | Separate sectors, not all linked | 86 km | 25% | 67% |
| Madonna di Campiglio | 1,550 m | 2,496 m | 155 km, three sectors, all linked | 115 km | 18% | 61% |
| Alta Badia | 1,568 m | 2,509 m | 130 km of its own, on the Sella Ronda | 124.5 km | 15% | 65% |
Cortina d'Ampezzo: the closest on the town and the occasion
- VillageVillage
- 1,224 m 598 m lower
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,939 m 364 m lower
Cortina d'Ampezzo: 86 km of piste we measure. 38 km blue and easier 45%38 km red 45%9 km black 11%
Plus 9 km of marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
St Moritz's best trick is a week that works for people who barely ski, and Cortina is the Italian resort that plays the same trick. It is upmarket by our read, stylish and scenic, with a pedestrian main street of boutiques, delis and cafés where watching everyone else is a pastime in itself. Add a spa culture, an ice rink and sleigh rides through the valleys, and the non skiers in your party are well looked after. The Olympic history even lines up: St Moritz hosted the Winter Games in 1928 and 1948, Cortina in 1956 and again in 2026.
On the snow it holds up better than its village suggests. The skiing reaches 3,028 metres by our measure, a lift top above the highest piste we measure, at 2,724. That is the second highest of the 10 Italian resorts we cover and the highest of these three picks, and it is snow sure on our measure: 67 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres. The mountain feels familiar, with 25 percent of the piste steeper than one in four, against your 24, and reds averaging 21.9 percent, against 21.0. Even the layout will feel normal to you: Cortina's sectors, Tofana, Faloria and Cristallo, are not all joined, so the bus or a car links them, much as you travel between St Moritz's mountains. And there are 9.2 kilometres of marked itinerary, where around St Moritz we measure none.
The trade is the height at the bottom and the size. The town is at 1,224 metres, 598 below St Moritz, and a third of the piste sits below 1,800 metres. We measure 86 kilometres around the town, against your 106, with 9.1 kilometres of black against 16.
Madonna di Campiglio: the closest on the numbers
- VillageVillage
- 1,550 m 272 m lower
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,580 m 723 m lower
Madonna di Campiglio: 115 km of piste we measure. 54 km blue and easier 47%44 km red 38%17 km black 15%
Our matching puts Madonna di Campiglio closer to St Moritz than any other resort we cover, in any country. It is upmarket and smart and sociable by our read, with a pedestrian centre lined with shops, aperitivo evenings and a following that goes back to the Habsburg era. It is also the one pick where the skiing is all joined up: 155 kilometres across three sectors, every one of them linked by lift, which is something St Moritz cannot offer.
The skiing is a little bigger and a good deal kinder. We measure 115 kilometres of piste around the village, with 53.8 kilometres of blue and easier and 17.3 of black, both the second most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. Only 18 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 24, and the blues average 12.9 percent, among the gentlest of the 55 resorts we cover, against St Moritz's steeper 16.4. For a group with a nervous skier in it, that matters more than the colour on the map.
The question is height. The village is at 1,550 metres, 272 below St Moritz, and the skiing tops out at 2,496 metres by our measure, 770 below yours. Sixty-one percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, against 97. That puts Madonna right on the line of our snow sure test, and it is a call we have not made. If the snow is the reason you go to St Moritz, this is the pick to think hardest about.
Alta Badia: the closest on the food
- VillageVillage
- 1,568 m 254 m lower
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,778 m 525 m lower
Alta Badia: 125 km of piste we measure. 76 km blue and easier 61%41 km red 33%8 km black 6%
People eat seriously in St Moritz, from the long lunches on the mountain to the Michelin starred rooms in Dorf. Alta Badia is the valley in Italy that builds its week around the table: our one line on it is gentle Dolomite cruising and world class mountain food, with Michelin starred kitchens in and around the villages and Ladin cooking in the huts. It is warm, welcoming and good for families by our read, rather than glamorous.
The skiing suits a St Moritz group of mixed abilities. We measure 124.5 kilometres of piste around the village, and 76.4 kilometres of blue and easier, the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover and two and a half times your 30. Forty percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 28. Alta Badia's own sector is 130 kilometres, and it sits on the Sella Ronda, from where around 500 kilometres is reachable by lift, a figure we sum ourselves and treat as approximate.
What you give up is height and the steeper runs. The village is at 1,568 metres, 254 below St Moritz, and the skiing tops out at 2,509, 757 below yours. It is snow sure on our measure, with less in hand: 65 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres. There are 7.5 kilometres of black, and the evenings are quiet dinners rather than grand hotel bars.
A St Moritz week is the town, the occasion and a group where not everyone skis every day, wrapped around high, steady skiing on separate mountains. Cortina keeps the most of that: upmarket and stylish, a real town to come home to, the highest skiing of the three, snow sure on our measure, and a mountain with the same temperament as yours. Go knowing the town sits far lower and the skiing is smaller. If one linked area and gentler pistes matter more than the height, Madonna di Campiglio, which our matching rates closest of all.