Like Tignes, but in Italy: closer than you might think

On paper, Sestriere is the Italian Tignes. It is purpose built and high, at 2,035 metres, the second highest village of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. We class both as modern, and our read on Sestriere is high and practical, which is Tignes's own description turned round. It sits in the middle of the Via Lattea, a big linked area: about 305 kilometres on the standard Italian pass, a figure we worked out ourselves because no one publishes it, and 400 if you add Montgenèvre in France on the International pass.

The skiing is the closest of the three as well. We measure 160 kilometres of piste around the village, 30 more than around Tignes and the most of the Italian resorts we cover. It also has the most black and the most marked itinerary of the Italian resorts we cover: 17.9 and 10.8 kilometres, against Tignes's 20.5 and 14.2. Thirty percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 25. It is snow sure on our measure: 91 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,788.

What you give up is the top and the edges of the season. The skiing stops 661 metres below Tignes's, so there is no glacier to fall back on, and you lose the late November and early May weeks: the season is December to April. There is less easy ground, 49.8 kilometres of blue and easier against Tignes's 76 of green and blue, though what there is will not frighten anyone: the blues average 12.0 percent, the gentlest of the Italian resorts we cover and the second gentlest of the 55 resorts we cover. Tignes's blues average 17.6.

If what you would miss is the certainty at both ends of the winter, Cervinia. The village is at 2,050 metres, the highest of the Italian resorts we cover and 50 below Tignes. Ninety-nine percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, the joint third biggest share of the 55 resorts we cover. The season runs from late November into May, the same shape as yours. And the lifts reach 3,869 metres, 420 above Tignes's top and as high as any resort we cover: that is a lift top, the station Cervinia shares with Zermatt.

The arrangement will feel familiar. Like Tignes, Cervinia is a practical, purpose built village that shares its skiing with a grander neighbour over the hill. Cervinia and Zermatt are linked by lift, 322 kilometres measured across the border, with two catches: you need the International pass for the Zermatt side, and wind can shut the high crossing. Count the Italian side alone and the sources disagree, from 104 to 150 kilometres; our best estimate is about 120, and we measure 116 around the village.

The trade is the steep. Cervinia has just 15 percent of its piste steeper than one in four, against Tignes's 25, and there are 8.2 kilometres of black against 20.5. Seven tenths of it is graded red, but those reds average 18.1 percent, barely steeper than Tignes's blues at 17.6, and there are only 24.3 kilometres of blue and easier. A Tignes cruiser will be in heaven. A Tignes strong skier will want the off piste higher up, or a day over in Zermatt.

Alta Badia sits much further from Tignes on our matching, and only one thing carries over: the scale of what you can ski. From a base on the Sellaronda, around 500 kilometres is reachable by lift, our own approximate sum rather than a published figure, and Alta Badia's own sector is 130. The 1,200 kilometres on the Dolomiti Superski pass is something else: twelve areas, only four joined by lift.

It also matches Tignes's easy skiing almost exactly: 76.4 kilometres of blue and easier, the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, against Tignes's 76 of green and blue. And it is snow sure on our measure, by a whisker: 65 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,509.

Everything else is different. The village is 532 metres lower, the season runs December to April, and the skiing is gentle: 15 percent steeper than one in four, 40 percent gentler than 15 percent, as large a share as any Italian resort we cover, 7.5 kilometres of black and next to no itinerary. Our read on it is warm, welcoming and made for families, and the mountain food is what it is famous for. It is a Tignes week for a family that cruises and would like the Dolomites and a long lunch.