Probably the most beautiful setting of any ski town in the world, an old aristocratic resort sitting in a bowl of vertical Dolomite rock. The pedestrian Corso Italia is for walking, being seen and shopping, and the evening passeggiata is a genuine ritual.

The skiing is spread over three separate mountains with a bus between them, which costs time each day. It is sunny, well groomed and mostly intermediate, with the Olympic downhill and the Tofana faces for stronger skiers. Come for the setting and the town as much as for the slopes. Grand hotels, rifugi and apartments, expensive by Dolomite standards. Lunch on a rifugio terrace is part of the point. There is a bobsleigh run, and the Cinque Torri has an open air First World War museum built into the old front line.