Ski Free In Madonna di Campiglio 28 March - 5 April

Madonna di Campiglio is offering a free six-day lift pass when you book a week's stay in one of the resort's hotels from 28 March to 5 April, 2009.

Madonna di Campiglio is one of the world's classic ski centres and one of Italy's most famous, ranking with Cortina, Courmayeur, and San Martino. It is an extensive and hugely enjoyable ski area with access lifts coming right down in to the town. The resort's altitude gives it better snowsure conditions than many traditional winter sports centres.

Recent investment has meant almost all the key trails are served by modern lifts, and supported by snowmaking. As well as the lift-linked terrain joined to two other resorts, a further four are included in the area pass bringing a total of 300km (187 miles) of trails served by 100 lifts, less than a third of those surface tows - a very high percentage of chairs and cabin lifts by Europoean standards.

Madonna di Campiglio is a chic resort staging the kind of grand balls and polo-on-ice tournaments for which St Moritz is famous. The surrounding scenery of the Rendena Valley with pink Dolomitic rock above, ascending in sheer cliffs and precipices above the forest, is spectacular and beautiful.

The area has a long history, but had been in a period of decline for around 150 years when skiing first began here in the 1930s. The resort really took off by the '50s. Most of the local population is employed in the tourism industry. The vast majority of Madonna's clientele are domestic - Italians - which is unusual for a top European resort.