Skiing: Pizza and piste

This year the popularity of Italy may have fallen a little, but the advantage is that resorts are trying all the harder to please, writes Cathy Packe.

To compare skiing in Italy with other parts of Europe, you only have to look at a multinational group of skiers coming down a mountain. The Austrians will descend in a series of perfect turns; skiing French-style tends to be more ragged, but still elegant; the Italians are all over the place, shouting and having lots of fun.

Fun is a good incentive for choosing to ski in Italy, as is the prospect of good food and wine; but it is the weakness of the lire against the pound that accounts for Italy's share of the British ski market. Now, however, other parts of the world have at least as much economic appeal, and Italy is having to try harder.

The Italian ski country straggles in a long ribbon along the borders with France, Switzerland and Austria, and provides some of the most varied skiing in Europe. In the Alps are the Val d'Aosta and the Via Lattea, or Milky Way, a vast area whose main resort is Sauze d'Oulx, but which spreads to the French resort of Montgenevre. Farther east are the Dolomites and the the round-mountain run of the Sella Ronda, whose ritziest resort is Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Most of the Italian resorts are reached from Turin, Bergamo, Verona and Venice. The transfer times from airport to resort are worth taking into account if you are thinking of booking a holiday which uses Bergamo; if travelling on to Livigno you have five-and-a-half hours' more travelling time ahead.

The best choice is to be found at First Choice Ski, with 20 resorts, and Crystal, which as well as 16 other destinations offers holidays in Alagna, an hour or so from the Mont Blanc tunnel, and in the villages of Arabba and Corvara in the Sella Ronda.

Most operators are extending their number of resorts. Both Thomson and Airtours are offering Sestriere. Another new Thomson destination is nearby Bardoneccia; Neilson has accommodation for the first time in Bormio and the duty-free resort of Livigno, as well as the smaller resort of Madesimo.

Despite offering a smaller range than some companies, Equity Total Ski does offer small places such as Andalo, only an hour from Verona airport. Equity offers all-in prices for flights, accommodation, ski school, lift passes, hire of equipment and insurance - and anyone taking their own equipment, or deciding against ski school, is offered a reduction.

What you do have to pay with Equity is a supplement for a single room. A company worth considering if you are going alone is Solo's. It offers a limited range of resorts on fixed dates - you are guaranteed to be part of a group of people, though with your own room and no obligation to take part in group activities - but Italy features only in the brochure aimed at the 50-plus age group.

For younger people, Escapades, which is part of Airtours, has a separate brochure - the Wild and Wicked Winter 97/98 Guide - aimed at "high-on- life fun-seekers" who don't want to get stuck "playing Scrabble with Auntie Doreen". Escapades features a much smaller selection of the hotels in the main Airtours brochure, and at the same prices. This could be a warning to anyone who would prefer not to be in a hotel full of "good-time animals"; make sure you look at both brochures.

Italy may not be the first choice for a family holiday, although Courmayeur is recommended by several operators. One of these is Airtours, although curiously their offer of free child places covers only Sauze d'Oulx, Bardonecchia, Santa Caterina and Passo Tonale.

Courmayeur, the oldest of the Italian alpine resorts, developed into an international ski resort when the opening of the Mont Blanc tunnel linked it with Chamonix. It has nearly 70 miles of pistes, down the slopes of Mont Blanc as well as in the main skiing area, the Checrouit. This year brings a new quad lift to take skiers up the Checrouit. There are opportunities for glacier and cross-country skiing, but Courmayeur is probably best known for guided off-piste skiing.

Of course, by now you may already have this season's skiing sorted out, but a bit of advance planning could save you money next year. Panorama has already published a preview edition of its holidays in Italy for 1998/99; book before the end of June for January 1999 and you could get a six-day lift pass for free.

Airtours 01706 232323; Crystal 0181-399 5144; Equity Total Ski 01273 298298; Escapades 0541 504001; First Choice Ski 0990 557755; Interski 01623 456333; Neilson 0990 994444; Panorama 01273 206531; Solo's 0181- 951 2811; Thomson 0990 329329