Italy as a ski destination
Italy skis on two mountain systems rather than one. ANEF, the national cableway operators' association founded in 1953, represents around 300 companies running roughly 1,700 installations across Alpine and Apennine territory alike, so the same trade body speaks for the Dolomites and for ski areas two hours from Rome. Its March 2026 economic study put spending on lift tickets and services in the five main ski regions at 1,111 million euro, and calculated that this activates 8,941 million euro of local business turnover and supports 75,236 direct and indirect jobs.12
- Cableway installations represented by ANEF
- 1,700
- Cableway companies represented by ANEF
- 300
- Spending on lift tickets and services
- 1,111 million EUR
- Local business turnover activated
- 8,941 million EUR
- Direct and indirect jobs
- 75,236
What it is known for
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The Alps and the Apennines
ANEF represents lift operators in both ranges, which is unusual among Alpine countries. The Apennine areas are lower, further south and far more dependent on snowmaking than the Dolomites or the Aosta Valley, and they serve a different audience: day-trippers from Rome and Naples rather than week-long visitors.1
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Lifts concentrated in a handful of northern regions
A PwC study for ANEF covering Valle d'Aosta, Trentino and Alto Adige found those three regions alone hold 689 installations, 38.3 per cent of the national total, run by 78 operating companies. Winter first entries across the three ranged from 2.9 to 7.7 million depending on the region.3
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Lift revenue is the smaller half of the economy it drives
ANEF's March 2026 study calculates a multiplier of more than five times on local tourist spending and more than eight times on local business turnover for every euro taken at the lift ticket window, and puts the average tax revenue generated per skier day at 15.5 euro.2
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A season that has recovered past its pre-Covid level
The 18th edition of Laurent Vanat's International Report on Snow and Mountain Tourism recorded a global record of 399 million skier visits in 2024/25, and named Italy among the countries that surpassed their own pre-Covid five-year average.4
Resort guides
143 of the 1,311 ski areas mapped in the SkiAllDay app are in Italy, together 4,988 km of downhill terrain and 2,183 lifts. A cross-border area counts in every country it touches. The guides below are the ones written up so far.
| Resort | Pistes | Vertical | Lifts | Piste / lift km | Lift min / ski hr | North-facing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Zinnen Dolomites South Tyrol (Alta Pusteria / Hochpustertal) | 86.4 km | 1,095 m | 19 | 1.25 | 80 | 45% |
| Alpe di Siusi South Tyrol (Dolomites) | 73 km | 993 m | 22 | 1.30 | 72 | 49% |
| Kronplatz South Tyrol (Puster Valley) | 125 km | 1,340 m | 32 | 1.03 | 87 | 45% |
| La Thuile Aosta Valley (Italy) and Savoie (France) | 152 km | 1,600 m | 38 | 2.26 | 60 | 49% |
| Livigno Alta Valtellina, Lombardy | 115 km | 982 m | 31 | 1.56 | 63 | 45% |
| Monterosa Ski Aosta Valley and Piedmont | 180 km | 2,063 m | 21 | 1.16 | 88 | 21% |
| Roccaraso - Rivisondoli Abruzzo (Alto Sangro, Province of L'Aquila) | 90.5 km | 832 m | 23 | 1.58 | 65 | 49% |
| Sellaronda South Tyrol, Trentino and Veneto (Dolomites) | 500 km | 1,681 m | 200 | 1.10 | 92 | 44% |
| Ski Civetta Veneto (Province of Belluno), Dolomites | 72 km | 1,100 m | 23 | 1.34 | 70 | 46% |
| Via Lattea Alta Val Susa, Piedmont (Italy) and Hautes-Alpes (France) | 400 km | 1,469 m | 70 | 1.69 | 78 | 55% |
Piste, vertical and lift counts are the operators' own figures. The last three columns are measured from each resort's lift and piste network — see any resort page for how. Piste per lift km describes how sparse a lift network is, not how good it is: sort on it to find long runs off few lifts, or on lift minutes per ski hour to find quick laps.