Like Val Thorens, but in Italy: the height travels, the nights do not

If what keeps you going back to Val Thorens is never having to check the forecast, Cervinia is the Italian answer. Its village, at 2,050 metres, is the highest of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, 250 metres below yours. Higher up it beats you. Ninety-nine percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, the joint third biggest share of the 55, against Val Thorens's 96, and the skiing reaches 3,869 metres by our measure, joint highest of the 55. That top is a lift top, the glacier station shared with Zermatt, over the Swiss side, so check your pass first. The season, late November to May, is the nearest of the three to yours.

The surprise is underfoot. Cervinia's map is mostly red, 72 percent of the piste, with only 24 kilometres of blue and easier against the 134 of green and blue you have at home. Measured, it is a kind mountain. Thirty-nine percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, against your 37, and only 15 percent is steeper than one in four, against 25. Its reds average 18.1 percent, among the five gentlest of the 55 we cover. A Val Thorens cruiser will spend the week on red and wonder why it does not feel like it.

What you give up is size and noise. We measure 116 kilometres of piste around the village, a little over half of Val Thorens's 211. Cross the top into Zermatt and the linked total is 322 kilometres, measured, but only on the International pass, which costs more, and only when wind has not shut the high crossing. There are 8.2 kilometres of black against your 16. And the evenings are an aperitivo and a long dinner, sociable and early, not a dance floor in ski boots.

Our matching puts Sestriere closer to Val Thorens than any other resort we cover, in any country, and the shape of the place shows why. It is purpose built, modern and high, at 2,035 metres the fourth highest village of the 55. It is snow sure on our measure: 91 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,788 metres. And it is the biggest of the three picks. We measure 160 kilometres of piste around the village, the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover and about three quarters of yours.

Its area is the Via Lattea, the Milky Way, and it is genuinely linked, though the headline needs care. The 400 kilometres you will see quoted includes Montgenèvre, on the French side, which needs the dearer International pass. Take Montgenèvre's 95 kilometres away and the Italian side is about 305, our own subtraction, because nobody publishes that figure.

The mix suits a Val Thorens skier who likes to push on. Thirty-five percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 37, and 30 percent is steeper than one in four, against 25. There are 17.9 kilometres of black, the most of the Italian resorts we cover, and 10.8 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary, also the most, against your 16 and 7.6. The blues average 12.0 percent, the second gentlest of the 55 we cover, so the easy runs really are easy. There are just fewer of them: 50 kilometres of blue and easier.

The trade is the top and the calendar. The skiing stops at 2,788 metres, 366 below Val Thorens's measured top, and the season runs from December to April. Our read on Sestriere is high and practical, a place for value and mileage rather than late nights. A group that goes to Val Thorens for the skiing first and the bars second will settle in fast. A group that goes for the bars will not.

Alta Badia is the odd one out on purpose, the furthest of the three from Val Thorens on height. The village is at 1,568 metres, 732 below yours, and the skiing tops out at 2,509 metres by our measure. It is still snow sure on our measure, though with less to spare: 65 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres.

What it shares is the thing Val Thorens families notice and party groups forget, that most of the mountain is easy. It has 76 kilometres of blue and easier, the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, and 40 percent of its piste is gentler than 15 percent, the joint fourth biggest share of the 55. Only 15 percent is steeper than one in four. That is more easy ground than Cervinia or Sestriere offers, though still a little over half of your 134.

The skiing is a pass rather than one area. Around the village we measure 124.5 kilometres, and Alta Badia's own sector is about 130. From a Sella Ronda base about 500 kilometres is reachable by lift, our own approximate sum. The Dolomiti Superski pass covers 1,200 kilometres, but across twelve areas, only four of them joined by lift.

The character is warm and welcoming by our read, and the food is the point: long lunches in mountain huts, Ladin cooking and serious kitchens in the villages. For a Val Thorens family that loved the easy runs and could live without the bars, it is a very good week. For a group of friends, it is a different holiday.