Like Wengen, but in Italy: the gentle family week, higher and in the Dolomites

Our matching puts Alta Badia closer to Wengen than any other Italian resort we cover, and on the slope it is close to a copy. We measure 124.5 kilometres around it, against your 125, and 40 percent is gentler than 15 percent, against 39, the joint fourth largest share of the 55 resorts we cover. Only 15 percent is steeper than one in four. It is a family resort on our tags, and our read is warm and welcoming, gentle Dolomite cruising and world class mountain food.

The quiet comes from our guide rather than our tags. Alta Badia is five Ladin speaking villages along one valley, its evenings run to long dinners rather than late nights, and Colfosco and San Cassiano are the calmer bases.

It sits higher and reaches further. The village is at 1,568 metres, 294 above Wengen's, and 65 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, up to 2,509 metres by our measurement, so on our measure it is snow sure. Its own sector is 130 kilometres, against your 101, and from a base on the Sella Ronda around 500 are reachable by lift. That is our own approximate sum of measured kilometres, not a figure Dolomiti Superski publishes. The 1,200 on the pass covers twelve areas, and only four of them are joined by lift.

The trade is the black and the balance. There are 7.5 kilometres of black, against your 20, and the mix leans to the easy end: 76 kilometres of blue and easier, 61 percent of the piste and the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. A family will love that. A strong skier who liked Wengen's blacks will run out of them.

If what you would miss is the shape of Wengen's mountain, Madonna is the one. Its split between easy, red and black is the joint seventh most even of the 55 resorts we cover, where Wengen's is fifth, and there are 17.3 kilometres of black, the second most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. Eighteen percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, the nearest of the three to your 20. The gradients are close too: blues average 12.9 percent and reds 19.7, against 13.9 and 20.1 at Wengen.

It is a family resort on our tags, and our line on it is elegant skiing beneath the Brenta Dolomites. Our guide adds something close to Wengen's missing cars: a compact, largely pedestrian centre where the car can stay parked all week. All three of its sectors are lift linked, 155 kilometres, and we measure 115 around the village, about 10 fewer than around Wengen.

The trade is the hush. Our read is smart and sociable, with style and grooming on its list, and we tag it upmarket, not quiet; our guide's evenings are aperitivo hour in smart bars. The village is at 1,550 metres, 276 above Wengen's. Sixty one percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres and the skiing reaches 2,496 metres by our measurement, close enough to our snow sure line that we have not called it either way. There is no marked itinerary that we measure.

Scenery is on Val Gardena's list, as it is on Wengen's, and our read is scenic and traditional, a classic Dolomite valley on the Sella Ronda, with woodcarving on its list as well. Its share of piste at or above 1,800 metres is 66 percent, the same figure as Wengen's, there are 16.4 kilometres of black, and we measure 145 kilometres around the valley, about 20 more than around Wengen.

It is gentler still. Only 13 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, and only one of the 55 resorts we cover has a smaller share. Its reds average 17.3 percent, the gentlest of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. That matters, because 60 percent of its piste is marked red and only 29 percent is blue and easier, so the map looks harder than the slope.

The tops need care. Its 2,731 metres is the top of a lift, and the highest piste we measure starts at 2,480, so it is snow sure on our measure only on that lift top. The trade is the family week: we tag it neither family nor quiet. It shares the Sella Ronda with Alta Badia, so a family staying in one can ski the other.