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An Italian Alpine village with an interesting sporting twist (golfers take note) the little town of Sestriere lies just 17 kilometres from the border with France, in the Turin (Torino) province of Piedmont (Piemonte) region. Most of those looking for a Sestriere hotel are likely to be winter sports enthusiasts - the town is at the heart of the Via Lattea (Milky Way) ski area, along with neighbouring Cesana Torinese, Sauze d’Oulx, Claviere and San Sicario, as well as Montgenevre just over the border in France. Facilities are marvellous - we’re talking 146 pistes, 400km of ski trails (120km with artificial snow should the cover start thinning). There are even floodlights for night skiing. With such tip top provision it’s no surprise Sestriere was chosen to host the skiing World Championships in 1997, the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in 2006, and that it regularly hosts the Alpine Ski World Cup.

So where does the golf fit in. Well remarkably, Sestriere is also the site of Europe’s highest 18-hole golf course, though play is, perhaps unsurprisingly, restricted to the summer months. Book a Sestriere hotel in summer and you could be playing golf in one of the world’s most stunning locations. It’s also a lung-burstingly elevated point on the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia cycle races, with stages periodically beginning and ending in the town. The signature buildings of Sestriere are the two hotel towers, part of the Olympic Village, and built in the thirties by Giovanni Agnelli, founder of the Fiat dynasty. Until then Sestriere was little more than a dot on the map. One of ahotelinitaly.com’s Sestriere hotels..

Piedmont hotels.