A huge disappointment due to high winds nearly every day. I went to Cervinia with the intention to ski into Zermatt for at least three days, but I barely even saw Cervinia from Valtournenche over the six days I was there. The snow, just after new year, was only down to 2000 meters and I was forced to ski down a boring red run with green grass and brown shrubs again and again. It got so bad that I even took a day off as saving the lift pass money was better than skiing.

Of course, you could be lucky and get day after day of blue sky and light winds. But the risk of bad weather, in my opinion, is too high. Even then there is little to interest the advanced skier compared with Argentiere, Chamonix, or the stable weather you can find in Austria. I've pretty much given up with skiing in Italy, but I'll stick to cycle touring in the summer.