The answers already posted by other people seem helpful to me. Trains from Venice Mestre) can get you, with changes, to various places - e.g. Bolzano (Bozen) and Dobbiaco (Toblach) - that are around the edge of the Dolomiti superski area. From such places there are buses that can get you to, for instance, Cortina, which is the largest town within the general Dolomiti superski area. There are frequent buses between Venice Airport and Piazza Roma on the edge of Venice, which is where road traffic to Venice has to stop. Getting to to the rest of Venice involves a ferry trip or walking. But Mestre, on the mainland (Venice being essentially an island), also has a main railway station through which pass all trains to and from Venice. Dual place-names in the above, e.g. Dobbiaco - Toblach arise from Italian language and German (sudtirol dialect) language being used separately for the same place. But careful googling identifies direct buses , several times a day, between the Venice (Marco Polo) airport and Cortina, for example. Check out the rome2rio website for more info. Cortina d'Ampezzo (to give it its full official name) is surely one good place to base a ski holiday. Lots of hotels at various prices. Can become very busy in peak season. Hiring a car does give you scope for getting relatively easily from one part of the whole area to another. You can probably hire a car once, for example, you are in Cortina, if that idea seems like a good one to you. 'nuff said?