Alpe Cermis - Cavalese

Convenience earns the praise: the gondola leaves straight from Cavalese, so the car can stay in town. The highlight everyone writes about is the Olympia descent all the way to the valley - a huge vertical with pitches that swing from steep to cruising, and reviewers call it the reason to come. Grooming is judged faultless. Bars and food on the mountain, the renewed gondola cabins and the floodlit evening skiing all get good marks.

Size draws criticism: the area is small and does not fill a full week. The second gripe concerns Olympia itself - once you reach the bottom, getting back up takes around twenty-five minutes across several sections, which cuts the number of runs you manage in a day. There are also complaints about the gondola stopping abruptly and leaving passengers hanging still for minutes at a time.