After years of snowboarding in Colorado, I went on a ski trip to Italy. Here are 7 differences I noticed.

Once you've made it to a ski resort in Colorado, getting on the mountain is simple. Likely, you'll have one or two options: a ski lift or a six-person gondola up the mountain.

In Italy, I saw several options for scaling the slopes. During my ski day in Cortina d'Ampezzo, for example, I first boarded a 40-person gondola, followed by a lift.

It was by far the largest gondola I've ridden, and throughout my three days snowboarding in Italy, I boarded these large gondolas along with smaller gondolas, ski lifts, and T-bars.

The consequence was that getting to the slopes often took longer since I spent time waiting for other people to board these large spaces. On the flip side, though, I rarely sat in a lift line once on the mountain — a common occurrence on Colorado's crowded slopes.

I read through lists of recommended restaurants in Cortina d'Ampezzo and listened to locals share their favorite spots in the Dolomites to grab a quick bite.

At each recommendation, I pulled up Google Maps to see how I could drive or walk to the spot. Often, I'd need to strap in my snowboard to get to their recommendations.

Refugios, which are mountain guesthouses, are known for great meals. Meanwhile, in Colorado, ski restaurants typically stick to the staples: chicken tenders, hamburgers, and chili.

While Colorado's mountainside restaurant scene may be changing — resorts like Snowmass and Arapahoe Basin have opened newer, nicer restaurants in the past few years — my friends and I typically stick to packed sandwiches and granola bars, basically quick bites consumed on chair lifts or at picnic tables.

Lunch some afternoons in Italy naturally led into après. The French word is similar to America's concept of happy hour. In Italy, it seemed like a staple of a ski day. In Cortina d'Ampezzo, I could hear music echoing as I snowboarded down one slope.

While the concept of après has made its way to Colorado, I rarely have friends who stick around a DJ set or carve out a few hours during the day for a sit-down meal.

The overall trend seems to be that the focus is on the sport when you're in the mountains in Colorado. In Italy, the focus is an experience that includes dining, drinking, and, of course, skiing or snowboarding.

I stared at my first ski map in Cortina d'Ampezzo and searched for familiar colors. In Colorado, ski runs are marked green for easy, blue for intermediate, and black for hard.

As I eyed Cortina d'Ampezzo's map, I saw no green lines. Then I remembered that Europe's grading system is different. Easy runs are blue, red runs are medium, and black runs are hard. Plus, there were colors I had never seen. Orange marked the equivalent of double blacks, and green dotted lines highlighted items like hiking trails.

Beyond the differences in colors alone, most European ski maps use numbers instead of names to signify ski runs.

In Colorado, you might head down runs named Bittersweet, Copperopolis, or Kaboom. In Italy, I looked at numbers — like skiing down slopes 85 and 62.

When it comes to the types of runs in Colorado, everyone seems to have a preference. Some skiers and snowboarders love narrow runs between groupings of trees. Others seek out moguls, a series of bumps down a run. If you're like me, you avoid both and stick to wide-open slopes.

The variety of runs was limited at the two resorts I visited in Italy. Most runs were groomed, and I didn't see a single mogul run.

The same goes for trees. Most of Italy's skiing happens above the treeline since trees stop growing at lower altitudes in the region. That means you'll find very few runs carved through pines. Instead, everything I snowboarded down in Italy was flat and open.

I walked up to my first gondola in Cortina d'Ampezzo, a wealthy ski town in Italy often compared to Colorado's ritzy Aspen, and I was shocked to learn that a lift ticket for the day would cost a mere 70 euros, or about $73.

In Aspen, a lift ticket cost me $250 in January.

Beyond the cost of getting on the mountain, other parts of skiing in Italy were cheaper.

Aperol spritzes cost less than $7, sandwiches less than $10, and gear was less than $50 a day for boots and skis or a snowboard.

The sport is expensive at resorts like Aspen, Snowmass, and Winter Park. Ski gear can cost closer to $100. In 2023, I paid $84 for skis and boots; gear at Snowmass this year was $78.

When I boarded my first Italian gondola, the fashion brand Guess was plastered across its walls. Minutes later, on my first lift, I noticed each pole had a bright-red Prada advertisement. At the base of my first run, a billboard showcased a Ford Bronco.

I saw ads everywhere I looked in the Dolomites.

It was unexpected, especially coming from Colorado. Sure, there are a few ads on the slopes — lunch advertisements fill lift safety bars, and you might see a luxury-sponsored bar — but it's not nearly as common as it was in Italy.

I find Colorado's mountains breathtaking every time I end up on the slopes, but I'll admit that the views of the Dolomites were some of the most impressive I've seen.

As I snowboarded across the Brixen resort during golden hour, I was in awe of the jagged peaks.

The views alone convinced me that lugging my heavy snowboarding gear was worth every bit of discomfort, and I won't second guess a future European ski trip.