Those who wish to invest in Italy property with wintersports in mind should look to the Aosta Valley, it has been suggested.

In a feature on the best affordable ski area property prospects, the Times suggested that the village of Valtournenche in the valley is the best option.

Located 1,500 m (4,920 ft) up, it has 380 km of pistes and can be reached from Turin airport in one hour.

The paper notes that the sort of property that can be found in the area includes one and two-bedroom flats in an old council building in the village for €198,000 (£176,000) and a block of four apartments in the nearby hamlet of Maen for €185,000.

Gemma Knowles of italianskiproperty.com, told the Times that investors should always look to buy somewhere high up, with lots of runs and good airport access.

"That way there will be a strong rental market with people coming back year after year," she commented.

Italy property buyers keen on renting property to tourists may have been encouraged by the recent finding in the Daily Telegraph travel survey, that Italy is the most popular destination in Europe.

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