Skiing in Italy

Many people don’t realise how much skiing there is in Italy with more than 400 ski areas located right down from Mt Etna in Sicily right up through the central Apennines to the big areas in the Alps and the spectacularly beautiful Dolomites to the north. These include some of the world’s most famous resorts like Courmayeur, Cervinia (which connects to Zermatt in Switzerland to create one of Europe’s largest, as well as highest, ski areas), Cortina, Sestriere and Madonna di Campiglio.

Italy has a long skiing history. Resorts such as Cortina d'Ampezzo and Selva in Val Gardena were famous in the 1930’s after the first resort had been established at Claviere on the French border. The Italians also pioneered purpose-built ski centres with the aid of large corporations such as Fiat and famous centres such as Sestière, site of the 1997 World championships, were created. Italy is a long country from north to south, and in its northern half stretches from French to Slovenian borders along the southern edges of Switzerland and throughout Austria. There are ski resorts throughout the country, including some of Europe's biggest (in terms of skier uplift per hour) close to Rome. There is also skiing on several of the Italian islands, including Sicily and Sardinia.

The Domlomiti supershki Region is one of the world’s largest and most successful bringing a quarter of the Italian market to its giant ski area which includes a dozen valleys and more than 50 villages, together offering 1,200km of piste and nearly 500 ski lifts on one ticket. The area includes the famous Sella Ronda circuit with valleys radiating off like a wheel, together offering more than 500km of linked ski runs, the world’s second largest linked ski area.

The remarkable success of the charismatic Alberto Tomba in skiing through the 1990s has also helped to put Italy on modern the skiing map as indeed has the successful 2006 Turin Olympics and several Alpine World Championships in Bormio.