Skiing in Italy: La dolce vita on a higher plane

You'll find the value as impressive as the majestic mountains on a ski holiday in Italy.

Skiing downhill below fierce mountain peaks piercing the sky like fangs, we pull up suddenly, creating a supernova of snow spray that hits the side of a mountain restaurant like frozen champagne bubbles. But no champagne is on the menu today. Oh no, deep in Italy's Dolomites above the epicurean hub of Alta Badia, we're pausing for a hearty dish of Tyrolean Schlutzkrapfen. Hearts race from heady aromas swirling from the doorway, or maybe it's the altitude. Either way, we can't click our skis off fast enough.

Travel is sensory, with the best memories created by taste, especially in a country dripping with unforgettable experiences like Italy. So while the restaurant name is long forgotten, alpine sunshine on faces, the belly-warming half-moon ravioli exploding with mountain Tosela cheese, the staccato sounds of the local ancient Ladin dialect could all be a mere napkin fold ago. Ah, la bella Italia.

There is nowhere in the Alps like Italy. While Austrian apres ski is in a class of its own (bearded mountain men tabletop dancing to Beyonce's Single Ladies is a sight than can never be un-seen), Switzerland is a charming supermodel in both looks and fees (bring your gold bars) and France enjoys a passionate historical love affair for the long lunch, nowhere has it all like Italy - mountains, charm and a determination to enjoy life. Plus, it's the best value on snow.

Precious Euros stretch further here than in other European ski destinations; everything from an espresso to a mountain-hut lunch, from a lift pass to equipment rental is cheaper. Rather than looking for ways to save money, the advice is to spend it. Have the dessert, the ski lesson, the one-more-star hotel. It'll never be better, for cheaper.

But where to go? Italy's Sella Ronda has endless slopes, Zermatt/Breuil-Cervinia has the highest lift point at 3899 metres and Sestriere has the added bonus of elegant Turin nearby. Whether seeking glitz and glamour, quiet serenity or the perfect family outpost, you can't lose. The hardest part is choosing - and we are here to help.

If there was ever scenery that made you feel like you're skiing in a James Bond film set, this is it (and a film set it was, in For Your Eyes Only). Formed by a giant prehistoric coral reef it's streaked in a myriad of hues earning it UNESCO World Heritage listing. "The Dolomites are very special for skiing," says guide Reinhard Senoner of Gardena Guides in Val Gardena. "First there's the landscape, built under the sea 200 million years ago, plus the steep peaks and walls making incredible valleys and colours."

The Dolomites boast the largest ski area in the world, where 16 major ski fields total more than 1200 kilometres of trails. And the ever-helpful Italians have put them under one pass, the Dolomiti Superski.

If there's a ski circuit to do once in your life it's the 25-kilometre Sella Ronda, which can be completed in a day without ever removing skis. Running over four Dolomite passes circling the Sella massif, the route passes through the Ladin valleys of Val Gardena, Alta Badia, Arabba and Fassa.

If searching the ideal base, it's hard to go past the glamour puss Cortina D'Ampezzo, snuggled below the Cinque Torri, the five peaks giving the town a stage-set backdrop. And while the slopes are stellar and the jet-set fashion riveting, it's undergoing improvements to partly host the Winter Olympic Games Milano-Cortina in 2026. Or base yourself in Alta Badia, a hub with more than 40 mountain hut restaurants.

Breakfast in Italy and lunch in Switzerland? Don't mind if I do. While everyone has heard of Zermatt in Switzerland, just over the mountaintop border, in the Valle D'Aosta region where Italy borders France and Switzerland, is Breuil-Cervinia. It shares the same mountain profile of the Matterhorn (Monte Cervino in Italian), imposing from the town's location below the sheer south face.

Snow is always on the menu here, with the top lifted altitude of 3500 metres at Piccolo Cervino making it one of Europe's top resorts for ski reliability. And after boarding the lift in the centre of town, you have the Matterhorn Ski Paradise 350-kilometre trail system connecting Italy and Switzerland and three resort towns at your gloved fingertips.

But if up for more adrenalin, Courmayeur has your name on it. Sharing Mont Blanc like Breuil-Cervinia it's the lesser-known ski resort on an iconic mountain flank. While the focus is on neighbouring Chamonix, wealthy weekend skiers from Turin come here to hire a guide for expert terrain or enjoy the high-end dining, smart shops and luxury hotels in the charming medieval town that's a drawcard in itself.

Don't click off your skis just yet - there's an entirely separate sector of skiing - the Savoy Alps, west of Turin. Sestriere, Sauze d'Oulx and Pragelato were stomping grounds for the Winter Olympics Torino 2006 and are three of the six resorts constituting The Milky Way (Via Lattea), an intertwined 400-kilometre answer to the Dolomiti Superski area.

The playground of northern Italians, the Milky Way is a vibrant galaxy for snownauts to explore. Schuss between the bopping apres ski scene of Sauze d'Oulx to the more subdued tones of Sansicario, and finally succumb to the gravitational pull of Sestriere. At the heart of the action, it regularly hosts Alpine Ski World Cup events and has serious skiing cred. And then have a break from the ski slopes to wander the pedestrian areas and the large squares of Turin along with the locals.

Whichever area of Italy you choose, you'll find them all a little out of this world, and one of them is sure to become your own ski star. skiitaly.com.au, visititaly.eu