The Dolomites are part of the Alps in northern Italy, yet they are supremely different. The only real way to appreciate their beauty is to see them. Often the first view is from the air. Italy’s best ski resorts are served by Venice, Verona, Milan and Innsbruck airports.

Italians love skiing and they love sunshine. The mountain restaurants can look more like beachfront cafes when the sun shines; with locals relaxing on deckchairs with an aperol spritz.

Cortina d’Ampezzo

Cortina is Italy’s most affluent, fashionable ski destination, within easy reach of Milan. Part of Dolomiti Superski.

Selva, Val Gardena

The Val Gardena valley stretches 25 km (16 miles) with four world class ski areas. Selva is the Jewel.

The home of authentic pizza and pasta. Skiing in Italy offers great hospitality, amazing mountain scenery and terrain to suit all abilities. The Dolomite mountain range, in northern Italy’s South Tyrol, has country borders with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia; making for culinary, cultural and language crossovers.

Italian ski resorts are often proper ski towns offering apres-ski options from the relaxed and laid-back to slope-side parties, from family friendly to culinary delights. Whether your choice of Italian ski resort is for the ski school, the snow parks, the challenges of the terrain, the mountain scenery, the long lunch options, the accommodation or the apres-ski, you won’t be disappointed.

Together extensive snow-making capability, well-groomed pistes and a modern ski lift infrastructure mean that a ski day in Italy can really clock-up the miles. Dolomiti Superski covers over 1200km of piste across 12 interconnected ski areas.

Just a week skiing in Italy won’t be enough; you’ll want to return again and again. Discover the 400km of The Milky Way, the parties of Sauze d’Oulx or Livigno, the off-piste at Monterosa or a trip to a neighbouring country for lunch.

Google Map of the main ski areas of Italy

Overview of Italy.

Capital: Rome, in the south.
Land area‎: ‎300k sq km.
Population‎: ‎59 million.
Telephone: The international dialing code is +39.
Mobile/Data: Vodafone, WindTre, TIM, Iliad; it is in the EU roaming zone.
Time: Central Europe Time Zone (CET), 1 hour ahead of GMT/UTC.
Languages: Italian. In ski resorts German and the local Ladin influenced Bavarian are popular. In tourist hot spots you’ll find English spoken.
Driving: On the right. Winter tyres or chains are mandatory in Winter.
Visas: Most tourists can stay for up to 90 days without a visa. Italy is in the Schengen area.
Currency: The Euro, credit and debit cards are as widely accepted as in any other European country.
Tipping: It is common to round up the bill or leave a few euros in change when out eating/drinking. Most waiting staff will prefer Cash tips.

Skiing in Italy.

Making it on to the list of the best ski resorts in the World are two Italian favourites. The Dolomites are a UNESCO world heritage site and the area has over 100 years of alpine skiing history and tradition.

With lots of new infrastructure for the 2026 Winter Olympics and120km of pistes, Cortina d’Ampezzo, part of Dolomito Superski is said to be surrounded by nature like no other ski resort. With its chic and sophisticated atmosphere, Cortina d’Ampezzo makes it to our list of the best.

Selva is one of four beautiful villages found in the Val Gardena valley and makes the list of the best. It is bursting with tradition, culture and character and is also part of Dolomiti Superski. Val Gardena gives direct access to the Sellaronda; a 40km impressive ski circuit that makes for a full day out; covered by lifts and pistes all the way around.

You could argue that only selecting two ski resorts in Italy to be classified as ‘the best’ does it a bit of a disservice. The main other Italian ski resorts well worth checking out include.